MEMBERS of Taunton Athletics Club hauled in a massive 50 medals at the Somerset AA County Championships last weekend.

There were 18 county champions and gold medals spanning the age groups from under 13 years to Seniors, with a further 19 silvers and 13 bronzes.

It was a particularly good day for the club’s sprinters who, in spite of the less than favourable cold and windy conditions, managed to set a number of personal best performances.

The squad’s dedication to winter training under Taunton AC’s Head Sprints Coach, Norbert Rosser clearly paid off. Phoebe Bryant (U-15) secured gold in both the 100 and 200 metres finals. Luke Reynolds (U-15) doubled up in the 200 and 400 metres, winning both of his finals. Rosie Coles (U-17) and Ross Stephenson (U-15) won their respective 100 and 200 metre finals. And Josh Bristow made a welcome return to the sport after a couple of years out picking up gold in the senior men’s 100 metres.

There were also two silvers apiece for Maisie Brown (U-13) and Joe Macconnell (U-15) at both the 100 and 200 metres. Abigail Barton won a well deserved bronze at the sprint double, while Rosie Coles added a bronze in the 200 metres to her gold in the 100. Matt Tailby (U-17) finished the day with a second in the 200 metres.

Other areas of strength for the club were in the endurance events, javelin and high jump. In the middle and long distance events members of Taunton collected five golds, five silvers and five bronze medals. There were 3 county champions for the club at javelin, plus one runner up spot. The jumpers collected a gold, four silvers and a bronze.

Picking up four individual medals on the day was multi-eventer Ben Thompson (U-20) who accumulated three silvers at hurdles, discus, javelin and one bronze at high jump, while Maisie Brown (U-13) and Phoebe Bryant (U-15) both finished the day with three medals a piece. Amongst the many medal winners from the day was a delighted Beth Lincoln (U-13) who picked up bronze in the high jump, a tremendous achievement for one of the youngest members of the team and a relative newcomer to the sport.

EARLIER in the week, prior to the County Championships, several members of the Taunton AC endurance squad competed in the British Milers Club Young Athlete Meeting at Millfield which attracted some of the top young distance runners from across the country.

Although the conditions were cold and fairly breezy for really fast times at the 800 metres, the metric milers faired better with fast times being set by several members of the club.

Catherine Blew (U-20) made a strong start to her campaign for a successful season running well inside national entry standard with a time of 4min39sec to win the women’s B race.

Blair Brown smashed his previous best for 1,500, running 4.08, just 10ths off the national entry standard required for selection at the prestigious English Schools Championships in July.

Charlie Maclean inched closer to the four-minute barrier with a new personal best of 4.04.

There were personal breakthrough performances for Rowan Preece, Ben Hawkins, Isaac Taschimowitz, Jamie Coles and Holly Brown who all took sizeable chunks off their previous best times.