Tamworth Little Athletics Club members in the medals at state and national championships

The national event wrapped up on Sunday and saw several TLA members achieve podium finishes.

Abbie Peet won gold in the under-15s para 400m in a three second personal best and national record time for her category, gold in the 800m, silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m.

Olivia Earl also threw her way to a complete set, clinching gold in the under-15 para discus and silver in the shot put, and bronze in the under-17s javelin; all with personal best distances.

READ ALSO:

Isabella Wall meanwhile won silver in the under-15s 800m and finished fifth in the 400m in a pb.

Isabella Saywer was equal eighth in the under-16s girls high jump while Cooper Wilson finished seventh in the under-15s high jump. His coach Jay Stone said it was a great performance for his first nationals and in far from perfect conditions.

He actually jumped the same height as fifth but on countback was seventh.

Wilson was backing up from winning silver at the state championships just a couple of weeks before.

Peet, Earl and Wall also medalled at the state titles.

Peet claimed a golden treble winning her 100m, 800m and 200m while Earl won gold in her shot put and discus and silver in the long jump and Wall gold in the 800m and silver in the 400m.

They were part of a 30-strong Tamworth Little Athletics contingent.

They returned with a lot of new personal bests and some valuable experience being the first time many of them had competed at that level before.

As well as individual qualifiers the club also had three relay teams make it through.

Stone coached the relay teams and said they all held their own despite being up against some strong teams.

It was a reward for their hard work. Particularly during the holidays they really put in the hard yards doing a couple of sessions a week working on the finer arts of relay running.

Stone relocated to Tamworth from Armidale during the middle of last year.

"I needed a change after 20 years," the long time Armidale coach explained.

Initially looking for some training partners for himself and his daughter, he started coaching some of the local kids. Wilson, Peet and Earl all train with him.

Then once the little athletics season started he offered to help out where ever needed.

Only last month winning gold himself in the 200m and 400m at the NSW Masters Athletics Championships, when The Leader spoke with Stone he was just a few hours from competing at the Australian Masters Championships up in Brisbane. He had the 200m on Saturday and 400m on Sunday.

He went on to win gold in both in a season's best time.

Stone was happy with the results, although he conceded he's "not in the shape I want".

In saying that he said he feels like he is "building nicely" as he looks towards the world titles in Finland, which are at the end of June.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: