JACK Childs first attended the Home Park Athletics group (the Argyle Storm Academy) in September 2016. He was already a very active sportsperson and clearly had a very natural raw talent. After attending a few sessions, he along with a few others from the group took part in their first 3K race.
The race was organised by the Armada Athletics Network and attracts some top local runners. There is a mix of adults and children. In the first race of the session Jack finished an extremely impressive ninth place.
In the following months, he continued to improve his finish time and held his own in some very competitive fields, always finishing in the top 20 and with two top 10 finishes. The 3K event ran monthly from October 2016 to February 2017, each month there was a marked improvement in Jack’s time and overall Jack improved his 3K personal best by 29 seconds.
Moving forward, the Armada Network run a 5K event during the Spring and Summer months and Jack has continued to build on his successes at 3K and, after only two events, he has improved his 5K personal best by 1minute and 21seconds, moving from a top 25 finish to a top 20. This is also against the prospect of competing against some top local adult athletes.
Jack has recently taken part in his biggest event to date and once again his performance shone through. He took part in the Ivybridge 10k race, arguably one of the biggest local events around. He finished 125th in a field of nearly 800 runners. There is no doubt that the future looks bright for this exceptional talent and we are so proud to have him as part of PL4S project.