CITY of Plymouth’s British champion Poppy Tank opened her track season with a personal best run to finish second at an event in California.

Tank clocked 10:00.17 minutes for the 3,000m steeplechase at the Mt Sac Relays meets in Walnut.

That was a new best by two-and-a-half seconds and moves her up into the UK all-time top 25, and the former Plymouth College pupil feels there is a lot more to come.

“I feel disappointed with my race, but proud of how I handled the way it panned out,” she said afterwards.

“To feel flat and still PB is proof to myself that I’m making progress and taking steps forward in what is still a very new event to me.”

Meanwhile, some of the region’s up-and-coming youngsters impressed at the Ken Trickey Memorial Great West Open meet at Exeter on Sunday.

Poppy Northcott, Nicolas Maczugowski, Rory Summers, Adam Dingley, Nubia Evans-Shields, Phoebe Milburn, Hazel Stead and Josh Tyler were among the athletes to produce UK top-10 performances at the early season competition.

City of Plymouth’s Evans-Shields already tops the under-20 women’s discus rankings with a best of 45.15m and she continued her long record of constantly throwing over 40-metres with a 43.30m effort at Exeter.

Fellow England international thrower Phoebe Milburn (Tavistock AC) won the under-20 hammer with 46.12m, with her club team-mates Ella Patterson and Louisa Hess finishing second and third with 40.24m and 39.17m respectively. Milburn also won the under-20 shot.

Fellow Tavistock athlete Stead is the UK’s number two ranked hammer thrower in the under-15 girls’ age group and she continued her good early season form with 43.89m.

Tyler, who is ranked fifth in the UK under-23 shot rankings, threw 15.13m in his main event to finish second in the senior men’s competition behind British medallist Patrick Swan. Tyler also won the men’s discus (39.62m) and javelin (34.50m).

Another Tavistock athlete George Brown also impressed in the throws, winning the under-15 boys’ discus and hammer events, while team-mate Charlotte Doney claimed victory in the under-17 girls’ discus with 29.19m. She also came second in the 300m (43.92) and 100m (13.99).

Katelyn Milburn won the under-17 girls’ hammer with 29.36m and she also set a new PB in the triple jump, leaping 10.38m to take second. Just behind her in the triple jump was Erme Valley’s Isabella Trowell, who also set a PB with 10.29m.

Trowell had a good meeting as she also set a PB to finish second in the under-17 girls’ shot with 9.23m and came second in the 80m hurdles with 13.46 seconds.

The hurdles events, like the throws, did produce some eye-catching performances.

City of Plymouth’s Poppy Northcott opened her 400m hurdles season with a 64.83 second run, which ranks her second in the early UK under-20 rankings.

Team-mate Nicolas Maczugowski ran a season’s best time of 55.27 seconds in the men’s under-20 400m hurdles, which ranks him third in the UK.

Their coach Neal Edwards, a European Masters champion, showed them how to do it by running 63.07 seconds in the over-50s 400m hurdles.

Maczugowski, Northcott and Edwards also showed their speed over 200m. Maczugowski won the under-20 men’s race in 23.05, while Northcott ran 25.93 to finish second just 0.01 of a second behind Exeter’s Olivia Hayes. Edwards won the masters 200m race in 26.21 seconds.

Adam Dingley had a busy weekend. He ran the under-18 110m hurdles at Loughborough Open on Saturday, winning his race in 14.51 seconds, before clocking 14.84 seconds in the same event at Exeter.

Rory Summers, who has joined the City of Plymouth training group in the off-season, set two new PBs on Sunday. He won the under-20 400m in 49.13 seconds, which ranks him seventh in the UK. He also clocked 23.30 seconds for the 200m to finish just behind team-mate Maczugowski.

Tavistock’s Caleb Gifford-Groves won the under-17 boys’ 400m in 53.75 seconds, while City of Plymouth’s Nia Harradine-Cole won the under-17 girls’ 300m in 42.73 seconds.

There was some impressive sprinting from City of Plymouth’s Annabelle Fasuba in the under-15 girls’ category. She clocked 12.96 seconds to win the 100m and 26.10 seconds to also take victory in the 200m.

Plymouth’s Finley Eales enjoyed a good meet, claiming two wins and a second in the under-13 boys’ section. He won the 200m in 29.87 seconds and the 800m in 2:31.57, while he clocked 14.19 in the 100m.

Tavistock’s Jasmine Gray came second in the women’s 800m in 2:20.86, while City of Plymouth’s Lucas Sweeney was second in the under-13 boys’ 1,500m in 5:22.93 and team-mate Ella Isaias won the women’s high jump with 1.55m.

Full results can be found HERE.