COLCHESTER and Tendring Athletic Club's youngsters earned some valuable experience in their Eastern Young Athletes League curtain-raiser at Stevenage.

A small but enthusiastic team of athletes from the club took part in the first track meeting of the 2018 season.

And with several first-time competitors, it was more about gaining competition experience above anything else.

In the under-13 boys' competition, Henry Dover had an outstanding afternoon winning the 200m in 29 seconds.

It helped him follow up his comprehensive win in the 800m, where he finished more than ten seconds ahead of his nearest rival in a time of 2 minutes 24.9s.

Leo Morley-Robertson enjoyed a brace of third-place finishes in the B string 200m and 800m events while Stanley Hobbs was fourth in the A string 100m (15.1s).

Debutant Cameron Barclay was fourth in the boys' high jump with a PB of 1.20m.

In the under-15s, Aidan Cahill was a close second in his 1,500m event in 4m 34.5s.

Matti Godron filled in as many events as he could with his highlight a good fourth-place finish in a very strong high jump field (1.45m).

In the under-17s, Sam Gardiner had a trio of third places in the 200m (24.5s) and 400m (53.9s) sprints plus the long jump (5.44m).

Stefan Godron also had two third places in the javelin (39.87m) and discus (17.69m) along with a fourth-place finish in the shot putt (9.66m).

For the CATs girls' team, the highlights were performances by Quiana Cole (fourth, under-15 girls' long jump, 4.19 metres), Ellie Thompson (fourth, under-13 girls; 200m, 32.9s) and Amy Ella Thompson (fourth, under-17 women's 300m, 45.9s).