Jo Harvey

Devon athletics chiefs celebrated the county's commendable showing at the English Schools' Track and Field Championships this weekend - before branding 2004 "a good year". Devon's brightest teenage prospects were among the hundreds of young athletes who took part in the English Schools' Athletic Association event in Gateshead on Friday and Saturday.

And the county's youngsters put in some tremendous performances to earn two gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes, as well as a string of other finals appearances.

Devon ended the weekend with 103 points, which was enough to earn them eighth place in the Bradford Cup for counties with a schools population of between 100,000 and 225,000.

And Devon Schools Athletic Association secretary Eileen Mander said the 34-strong squad had done themselves proud.

"We were pleased with the team. To get six medals, including two winners, and a fair few finalists was a great result," she said.

"We had a strong year last year, but this was also a good year for us.

"I think the team probably exceeded expectations this year."

And the success enjoyed by many of Devon's competitors in recent years makes Mander believe that athletics is growing more and more popular in the county.

"I think we got a creditable score this year and it shows athletics is on a high in Devon at the moment," she said.

"We have been looking strong for the last few years and we've really got a depth of talent.

"We've got good athletes across the board in both track and field events. There was a fair distribution of athletes this year, which is good."

On the English Schools' competition's second day, Devon claimed their second gold medal when Ivybridge's cross-country champion Joanne Harvey convincingly won the junior girls' 800m in a personal best time of 2mins 12.10secs.

Devon Schools' Athletics Association chairman Terry O'Brien agreed the competition was a success for the county's athletes.

"Overall I think we did very well - it was a very successful weekend," he beamed.

"We got more medals than I thought we would and most of our athletes performed beyond expectations.

"It was pretty well on a par with recent years and it was good to score more than 100 points for about the fourth year running. That's a great standard to reach because for several years we were stuck around the 70 or 80 mark.

"The standards are pretty good in the county at the moment. It's going well, but I would like more boys to take part - we only had nine in the team this year."

After completing a successful weekend of competition, the Devon team then had the honour of meeting former West Buckland School pupil and Olympic and world triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards.

The retired world record holder was a member of the Devon schools' team when he was learning his trade back in the 1980s.