ATHLETES from Tavistock represented their county at two regional Sportshall athletics competitions and did themselves, Tavistock Athletic Club and Devon County proud by returning with a clutch of medals.
Jenny Milburn, Olivia Kinnear, Eleanor Mills, Freddie Williams and Harry Herdman took part in the U11s South West region Festival of Athletics at the Leisure Centre at Paignton. Teams from across the South West were out in force to compete in a range of indoor athletic events.
So strong is indoor athletics in Devon that they fielded two boys and two girls teams — the Devon Darts and the Devon Demons. Each athlete took part in three or four events. Olivia and Harry were in the Darts teams while Jenny, Eleanor and Freddie were in the Demons.
Tavistock athletes certainly served their teams well. Jenny, who is only of year 4 age, did well in coming fourth and fourth in the 4x1 lap relay and 1+1 lap relay events running for the Demons team. Olivia, also in Year 4, helped the Darts team to their eventual team victory with a second place finish in the Grand Prix relay and victory in the Balance Test. Eleanor Mills, in the Demons team, also performed well by coming fourth in her over and under relay event and took the top spot in the javelin with an excellent winning throw.
The Devon Darts girls team were victorious with Olivia taking away a gold medal as part the girls' team.
The boys also tasted success in the track and field events. Promising year 5 boy Freddie Williams, in the Demons team, came fourth in the 1+1 lap relay and second in the hurdles relay. Harry Herdman, another promising athlete who has broken several club track and field and sportshall records in 2010, had an excellent day with two victories - in the six lap Parlauf relay and in the speed bounce as well as a second in the Grand Prix relay. As a member of the winning Darts team he was given the honour of collecting the trophy on behalf of his joyous team mates.
Two weeks later it was the turn of the U13s and U15s at the South West regional finals and two of Tavistock boys were selected for this one: Patrick Channing (U13s) and Dean Smith (U15s).
Unfortunately, Dean suffered an injury just before the event so had to withdraw at the last minute. In Patrick's first event, the four lap race, he finished very strongly in a superb run to win gold.
Patrick also took part in the standing long jump and the eight lap Parlauf where he won silver medal to complete a most successful day.
Tavistock Athletic Club compete in the Devon Sportshall League and there are two more fixtures remaining in the season in February and March.
In the coming track and field season, they hope to retain the Devon Open Series Crown, the South West League and the County Championships in May.