A SUCCESSFUL year of track and field for Team Bath AC came to a close last Thursday with the club's awards night, which recognised athletes who had made a major contribution to the club’s successes in various leagues.

The 2012 season was one of the best the club has ever had, placing second for the first time ever in the local Avon League, topping the Midland One SW division in the National Young Athletes League and being part of the Team Avon U17/U20s team which narrowly missed a place in the national finals of the National Junior Athletes League.

During the year club athletes did magnificently in individual competitions, qualifying for and winning medals at the English Schools championships and representing England and GB in various disciplines.

Trophies handed out included the National Young Athletes Award, and two age group trophies from the Avon League, one for the U15 boys and the other for the U13 boys.

This is the first time the club has ever won the U15 boys award, and the last time the Colts won their shield was in 1988, when the club was still known as City of Bath AC.

All three trophies were taken home by members of the successful squads.

Also presented, by club chairman Dave Coales, were age group awards to the athletes named as Top League Points Scorer 2012.

Track and field team manager Alison Phillips said: “We’ve been so proud of the way all the athletes have trained and competed this year.

“It’s been especially good to see a real team spirit developing, with people supporting each other at meetings, cheering each other on and carrying on that hard work in training.

"All these awards are so well deserved, they have gone to athletes who have worked so hard, training regularly, turning out for the club over and over and being real team players.

“It’s nice too to see that as they are growing up many of them are staying with the club and that should give us a stronger senior team for the future.

AGE GROUP AWARDS

U11 girls: Rhiannon Bowen (Bath); U11 boys: Zac Bembridge (Bradford on Avon); U13 girls: Caitlin Wosika (Trowbridge); U13 boys: Jake Burkey (Chippenham); U15 girls: Livia Gauntlett (Box); U15 boys: William Kennedy (Westbury); U17 girls: Katie Geddes (Warminster); U17 boys: Matthew Holt, Trowbridge; U20 women: Laura Smith (Bath); U20 men: Eliot Green (Semington); Senior women: Natasha Lewis (Bath); Senior men: Imam Qazi (Bath).

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