SPORTSHALL provides excellent competition for young athletes across the winter months incorporating all of the running, throwing and jumping disciplines into an indoor setting.

For athletes from Tavistock Athletic Club there have been mixed fortunes over the recent season

In the competitive Devon Sportshall series for individual Tavistock athletes the season was a great success. Numerous club records were broken during the five fixture season, several athletes won medals for their performances in individual events, and some went on to represent Devon at regional inter-county competition with one going on to the Aviva Sportshall UK Finals held at the LG Arena in Birmingham last weekend.

U10s girl Jenny Milburn capped a marvellous season by winning three gold medals when the season presentations were made at the final meeting. U10s team-mate Olivia Kinnear took two silver medals and Luke Edwards a silver and bronze. Jude White, an U11 athlete won two silvers.

U13 athlete Lily Mills is continuing to develop in her field events and was rewarded with a gold and two silvers for her efforts. Harry Herdman proved to be king of the speed bounce winning the gold medal in that discipline while U15s athlete Patrick Channings won a medal in every colour as he continued to dominate in his sprint races.

Earning their colours by representing Devon at the regional inter-county events were Freddie Williams, Jude White, Luke Edwards, Jenny Milburn and Olivia Kinnear in the U11 competition. Harry Herdman and Lily Mills competed in the U13 regional fixture.

In Harry's case, although his squad were runners-up in their match to a strong Avon team the Devon U13 boy's team were selected to compete in Birmingham last weekend at the UK finals as they were best runners up from all of the regional competitions. It was a spectacular occasion where some of the brightest young athletic prospects were on show in a marvellous competition. In the U13 boy's competition Devon finished seventh with Harry narrowly missing out on an individual medal in his specialist Speed Bounce event coming fourth out of 24 competitors from around the UK.

The track and field season starts for the club with the first Devon Open Series match at Braunton on Sunday. Tavistock will host the second fixture at Tavistock College on June 24 and the club are looking to retain the Devon Open title which they have won over the past two seasons.

For more about Tavistock AC go to its website at http://www.tavistockathletics.com">www.tavistockathletics.com