Medals and personal best times for South Devon Athletic Club

Athletes from South Devon Athletic Club excelled across a wide range of events in their latest round of races.

Young members of the Paignton-based club came home with an impressive haul of medals, personal bests and records from two prestigious track meets.

Meanwhile, their senior clubmates took on the undulating lanes of the Chudleigh Classic, with chairman Colin Peters completing the course disguised as a tractor.

The club enjoyed a great day at the Inter County Championships at Exeter Arena, having qualified by achieving set times or distances just to get there.

In the high jump Isobel Foley performed well but just missed out on a podium, finishing in fourth place. Fynn Perry had a great race in the 75m hurdles to finish second with a new personal best time.

Isla Perry, who only last week claimed a new national record in the 300m to place her top of an honours board containing Olympians and world-ranked athletes, continued her winning streak.

She won the 300m with a new championship record and finished the day with a second gold in the 200m final.

Fin Cull just missed out in the long jump and finished fourth after a tough competition, while Lauren Carr returned to racing after a year out for A-levels and almost secured a personal best in the 100m hurdles, settling for a season’s best and silver medal.

A number of SDAC juniors also took part in the ACE Academy Olympics, a competition taking in 17 schools at Exeter Arena.

Jacob Levett secured gold in the 400m and bronze for the long jump, while Faith Levett also bagged gold in the 400m as well as in javelin and long jump.

Georgina White took first place with a strong performance in the 800m and Theo Green won the 400m with a fine, controlled run

SDAC athletes Ava Green, Thea Gillard, Solomon Synnott and William Crisp also put in sterling performances.

Meanwhile, at the Chudleigh Classic, chairman Colin Peters arrived at the starting line wearing a home-made cardboard tractor outfit, most of which made it back to the finish of the five-and-a-half-mile course intact.

James Spalding was the first club runner home in 48m 30s, followed by Vince Langdon (52m 04s), Farmer Peters (57m 11s) and Alison Ford (62m 55s).

Having celebrated the success of some of its sprinters in the week before, the plaudits from South Devon Athletic Club this week go to its very own Doyen of Distance, Matt Dalton.

The master of mileage took on the GB Ultras Beacons Way race, covering 100 ‘undulating’ miles of the Brecon Beacons.

The race started at Abergavenny Castle and headed west to take in 10 checkpoints including the summit of Pen-y-Fan, the highest point in South Wales.

Still smiling as he crested the summit, Matt went on to finish the course at Llangadog in 35 hours and seven minutes.

Not quite as hilly, but still a challenge on a hot summer evening, the club’s own Scadson Screamer formed the latest round of the SDAC in-house Grand Prix series.

The route takes runners from Occombe Farm down through Scadson Woods to Hollicombe before turning them round for the return climb up through the trees.

Winner of the 2025 edition was Colin Peters in a time of 21m 16s for the down-and-back course. He was followed home by Rob Foster in 21m 24s and Mark Carter in 22m 01s. First lady was Yvonne Odell, ahead of Tracy Elford and Alison Ford.

Also tackling the race were Marc Walpot, James Spalding, Daniel Tagg, Vince Langdon, Neil Jordain, James Nash, Matthew Senior, Roger Webb, Brian Marjoram and Heather Coverdale.

James Nash currently leads the men’s standings in the series from Roger Webb and Shaun Kirk. Leading lady is Dani Waters, from Yvonne Odell and Heather Coverdale.