LAST weekend the Bermuda Pacers Track Club won a hatful of medals at the 2003 Russell E. Blunt East Coast Invitational Track Meet at Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina.

They managed an overall finish of sixth out of more than 130 teams and won six golds, five silvers and three bronzes.

Pacers' head coach Cal Simons said: "We took 21 athletes and for three of them - Matthew Spring, Jerquan Simons and Robert Harvey - it was their first time at the East Coast Invitational.

"The girls finished fourth out of more than 100 teams and the boys finished seventh, while in the combined standings we were sixth. That is the third year in a row we've achieved a top-ten finish.

"It's really good for the kids. They're exposed to a whole different level of competition.

"And they needed great stamina to run heats, semi-finals and finals in 90-degree heat. So my assistant coach Jay Tucker and I were really pleased with how the kids performed and it was a great experience for all of them."

During the first day, the team took part in eight individual track events; two field events and the 4X400 metre semi-finals.

At the end of the day they had won five individual medals. Latroya Darrell competing in the 15-16 girls triple jump had a great battle with Durham Striders athlete Camellia Mormon.

At the end of the contest, both jumpers had broken the record, but Darrell had to settle for the silver medal with a leap of 38ft 9in while Mormon took the gold with a leap of 40ft 6in - just eight inches short of a national record.

Allison Outerbridge and Camille Simon finished second and third respectively in the 11-12 girls high jump.

Michael Hudson then won their team's fourth medal as he placed second in the 11-12 boys high jump.

The first day finished off in great style as both 4X400 relay teams advanced to the finals. In addition, Trey Simons won the first gold medal in the 9-10 boys 1500 metres.

During the second day of the meet, the Pacer athletes were involved in 15 individual events from 100m to 3,000m.

Akilah Reid in the 13-14 girls 3,000, Akilah Reid finished fourth in the 3,000m in a personal best time of 11:33:89.

The other athletes were involved in the 100m and 400m trials and semi-final. At the end of these events, we had five athletes in the 100m final.

Jerquan Symonds competed in the 9-10 boys in his first BEB/ECI, qualified with the first time at 13:37; while Kara Baxter/Kiche White and Nandi Wood all qualified in the 11-12 girls and Eulannae Douglas qualified for the 13-14 girls finals.

Four more athletes qualified for the 400m finals. Adonia Laws won his semi in 11:06.01 while Donte Brangman finished third in his semi 1:09.81.

During the 13-14 girls semi-finals Deanne Lightbourne won her heat in 58.38 while Shelby Hollis placed second in hers in a personal best time of 1:02.01.

The second day concluded with the 11-12 girls 4x100m team advancing to the final.

The state was not set for the final day of the meet. With six athletes in the 800m final, five in the 100m finals, four in the 400m finals, two in the 200m finals, eight in the long jump and high jump and all three teams in the 4x400 and 4x100 relay finals, the many parents and the other team members know it was going to be a great day for the team.

The first to compete was Trey Simons and Adonia Law in the 9-10 boys long jump. It finished with Trey winning his second gold and Adonia winning a silver.

Venicia Raynor and Matthew Spring competed in the 11-12 girls and boys 800. Matthew won his time trial in 2:22.29 and placed fifth overall, Venicia ran well but did not place.

The next two athletes on the track were Deanne Lightbourne and Shelby Hollis competing in the 13-14 girls events. This race was very exciting as Deanne Lightbourne placed second in a personal best time of 2:18.06.

During the 100m finals, Kara Baxter was tops for clubs as she placed third in the 11-12 girls 100 metre finals. Kiche and Nandi finished sixth and eighth respectively. Jerquan Symonds placed fourth in the 9-10 boys 100m final.

In the 400m final Adonia Laws and Deanne Lightbourne finished fourth in their individual age groups. In the 200 metre finals Kiara Baxter and Jerquan Symonds placed sixth and seventh respectively.

Another highlight of the day was when Latroya Darrell set a new meet record in the 15-16 girls high jump. She jumped 5ft some five inches better than the past record.

the event of the meet came to a close all three relay teams were ready to go. First to run was the 11-12 girls 4x100metre relay time. What an event this was. Kich? White ran a great first leg and passed the baton to Donneisha Gardner. Gardner had a great exchange to Nandi who was in second place heading to the team final runner Kiara Baxter. Unfortunately this exchange did not go so smoothly and the team finished in fourth place in a time of 53:30 just 22 tenths of a second outside a medal.

The final two events of the day saw the 9-10 boys 4x400m relay team win the club's first-ever gold medal in a time of 4:33, just 3.5 tenths of a second outside of a meet record. During the 13-14 girls 4x400 relay finals, the girls won the teams final medal when they finished third in the event in 4:14.28.

During the Awards presentation at the end of the meet the teams hard work paid off as they were runner-up in the 9-10 Boys and 11-12 girls age group.

The 9-10 Boys lost by one point to a 121-member team. The girls teams placed fourth overall and the boys placed seventh overall. In the combined scores, the team placed sixth out of 132 teams representing just under 2,000 athletes.