TWO junior athletes who regularly compete for Tavistock Athletic Club have been chosen to represent Devon.
Jimmy Hubbard and Matthew Drage, both 11 years old, have been selected for the Devon Under 13 team which will compete against other county teams at Kingsmeadow Stadium, Kingston on Thames on July 29.
Jimmy has been selected for shot and Matthew for the high jump. attendance and excellent performance at two county events, The County Championships held at Braunton on May 13 and 14 and the County Combined Events Championship (pentathlon) held at Exeter Arena on May 19 secured the boys' selection.
Both athletes are now training hard and this was evident at the Duchy Minors open meeting held at Redruth on Sunday. Jimmy competed in two events, shot and discus and won each with some ease, though he had to compete in an older age group in order to throw the discus. He gained trophies for each event.
Richard Drage (senior) represented Tavistock Athletic Club in the recent South West Veteran Track and Field Championship held at Exeter Arena. Richard achieved his season's ambition in winning the gold medal in the 3,000m event.
In a highly competitive field the race was led by Raymond Rogers of Newquay and Par AC who opened up what looked like a winning gap. However, Richard managed to close the gap in the second half of the race and took the lead to win the championship event and the gold medal. Richard recorded an excellent time of 9 minutes 7.4 seconds.
As a bonus Richard also ran in the 1,500m event later in the day and had the satisfaction of winning the silver medal in the Vet 40 category.