City of Plymouth athletes Henry Curtis, Nubia Evans-Shields and Nicolas Maczugowski and Tavistock’s Phoebe Milburn all won medals on international duty for England at the weekend.

Curtis was part of the England U20 team and Evans-Shields, Maczugowski and Milburn were part of the England U18 squad that competed at the Welsh U20 International in Cardiff.

At the meeting they faced competition from athletes representing Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Welsh Schools’ Association and a joint ‘Islands’ team made up of competitors from the likes of Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight.

Curtis took victory in the 110m hurdles in 14.46 seconds. He held of the challenge of south Devon’s England U18 athlete Joshua Taylor, who took second in 14.56 seconds.

The under-18 and under-17 hurdlers had to compete over the under-20 barriers. Maczugowski had not previously run over the higher barriers in the 400m hurdles, but he actually ran a PB of 54.09 seconds. That beat all his previous best runs over the lower barriers. He finished fourth overall in that event – first under-18 – but he then helped the England U18 mixed 4x400m relay team to a bronze medal.

English Schools’ champion Evans-Shields came second overall – and first under-18 – in the women’s discus with a throw of 42.47m. The only athlete to throw further was Scotland U20 champion Meghan Porterfield, who managed 43.73m.

Milburn was also second overall and first under-18 in the women’s hammer. She threw 51.95m. Northern Ireland’s Adrienne Gallen won the under-20 age category with 52.69m.

It was a great weekend for Tavistock’s Milburn as after winning a medal for England on the Saturday she then headed to Birmingham for the England U17/U15 Championships on Sunday and won her first national title.

She took gold in the under-17 girls’ hammer event with a throw of 50.81m.

Her club colleague, Louis Hess came fifth in the same final with 43.41m, while Ella Patterson was 12th with 37.25m.

City of Plymouth’s Adam Dingley could not have been closer to a medal in the under-17 boys’ 100m hurdles. He had won his heat in quick 13.16 seconds, but in the final he was just edged out for the medals by the smallest of margins. He finished fourth in 13.28 seconds, which was just 0.02 of a second of third. The top three all had to run PBs to beat him.

There were fifth-placed finishes in Birmingham for Tavistock’s under-15 athletes Evie Palmer and Charlotte Doney.

Palmer’s top five placing came in the javelin with a throw of 33.52m, while Doney set a new PB by one centimetre in the discus with a throw of 30.67m.

Club colleague Hazel Stead set a new PB in the under-15 hammer with an effort of 39.78m.

Elsewhere, British steeplechase champion Will Battershill ran a season’s best time of 3:42.14 for the 1,500m flat at the BMC Gold Standard Race at Watford.

Battershill had received an invited to compete at the World Athletics Championships due to his world ranking, but British Athletics, like they did for a number of athletes, rejected it on his behalf. However, he does have his eye on trying to achieve the Olympic qualifying time in some late season races.

Meanwhile, Tom Blackford and Charlotte Walker took victories at the annual Peter Tavy Plod on Monday.

Blackford won in 29.57 minutes, with Walker taking second overall and finishing as first woman and junior in 30.58.

Third overall and second male was 16-year-old Finley Squires, with veteran Peter Jones fourth and Molly Shorey fifth and second female in 32.57.