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ST. PETERSBURG - The competition was keen and his opponents elite, but it was the trek up a stormy mountain that truly impressed Brandon Meyer at a national Junior Olympic meet.
"My favorite part was when we got to go up 14,000 feet to the top of Pikes Peak, and when we got there, you could not even see the ground because of all the hail!" Meyer said via e-mail.
Meyer, 11, a Pinellas Park resident, was one of four south Pinellas County youngsters who won medals at the Junior Olympic Skills Competition Aug. 10-13 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A sixth-grader at Osceola Middle School who took his first qualification step at Forbes Recreation Center, Meyer won the bronze medal in his age group's soccer contest, in which competitors must dribble and shoot accurately in the fastest time possible.
Sarah Wilkins, 12, of St. Petersburg was the highest finisher among the Pinellas contingent, winning a silver medal in her age-group soccer competition.
Wilkins, a seventh-grader at Lutheran Church of the Cross Day School, also had qualified in the regional competition in track and field, but earned a higher qualification in soccer.
Winning bronze were Ashton Black, 12, and Lynn Burton, 11. Both competed in track and field and both are from St. Petersburg.
The track and field segment consists of a 50-meter dash, a standing long jump and a shot put-like event in which the athletes use a softball instead of the heavy, solid sphere.
A fifth Pinellas youngster, Cody Johnson, 13, of Oldsmar, won bronze in basketball, in which competitors score as many points as possible from designated shooting areas.
All began earlier this summer as five of an estimated 1.5-million young people across the national who took part in local and regional competition to qualify for nationals.
They were among 72 national finalists. This year's inaugural competition was created to teach health, sportsmanship and skills.