By Ruth Jones
Nene Valley Harriers’ youngsters rose to the occasion as they beat off strong opposition to win their final Eastern Young Athletes’ League match of the season to secure their place in the cup final for only the second time next month.
The relatively small Harriers have done remarkably well considering the size of their rival clubs in each match – and this meeting was no different.
Nene Valley’s team were drawn against much bigger guns such as Stevenage and Havering, who both sat above them in the league before the competition began.
To put the Peterborough, Spalding and Boston-based club’s achievements into context, there are 28 teams in the league, with only the top six going through to the cup final at Basildon on September 7.
Leading the way was 16-year-old England international shot putter Robbie Shaw, who won in style with a huge throw of 15.18m.
This was a personal best (PB) for all of four days, before he threw even further at the Biggleswade AC Jumps and Throws Open at Sandy with a new lifetime best of 15.43m, placing him sixth in the country for his age group.
Also performing well in the under-17 men’s competitions was Callum Crosby, who won the 100m in 11.9secs before placing second in the 200m with 23.8secs.
Bradley Spurdens won the 800m comfortably in 2.05.2mins, finishing more than six seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, while Olly Bowling and Dan Corrigan won the A and B 1,500m competitions in 4.32.2mins and 4.42.1mins respectively.
Continuing the success for the age group were Callum Lewis, who won the high jump with 1.76m and the B string javelin with 30.72m, Alistair Pitts, who performed strongly in a range of events, and Lucas Fidler, who won the B triple jump (10.45m) and long jump (4.88m).
In the younger competitions, under-13 athlete Nathan Rudman excelled when running 13.3secs for the 100m and 27.9secs for the 200m, before gaining valuable points when throwing the discus to 14.97m.
Ethan Ellison won the 800m in an impressive 2.31.1mins, while Callum Robertson took maximum points when winning the shot put with an 8.06m effort.
Another on-song was Matt Church, who threw the javelin to 18.73m before sprinting round the 1,500m in 5.33.0mins.
Elsewhere, under-13 Amelia Monaghan proved the girls could score highly too when she won the 1,500m in a new PB of 5.24.3mins.
In the girls’ U15 events, Casey Hilliam and Kelsi Ellis impressed when winning the A and B string 300m in 45.0 and 46.2 respectively, as well as dominating the 800m with times of 2:21.3 and 2:31.4.
Alex Pullen took second in the A 100m in 13.5secs and the B 200m in 29.9secs, while club-mate Jasmine Allen won the B 100m in 13.6secs and was second in the A 200m in 28.3secs.
Team-mate Megan Ellison also won a competitive 1,500m in 5.02.3mins.
Perhaps the most impressive performance in this age group, though, came from young Rosie Fresen, who not only dominated her pole vault competition to win with 2.5m, but also threw the hammer more than 14m further than anyone else to win with a huge 34.36m, less than 2cm short of her PB.
Alison Church shone in the under-17 age group, winning the triple jump with a 10.10m effort and placing second in the long jump with 4.8m, before also throwing the javelin to a very respectable 19.33m.
Finally, the under-15 boys excelled as usual, with William Hughes winning the A 200m in 24.7secs and new club member Jack Baker winning the B in 25.8secs and A string 300m in 40secs.
Harry Burchnell won the B 300m in 41.6secs, while the consistently excellent Josh Akinwumi won the 80m hurdles in 11.8secs and B long jump with 5.23m.
William’s brother Charles won the shot put and javelin with superb throws of 10.95m and 37.21m, while Kai Harrison won the B shot put with a 9.55m effort and Scott Waumsley won the high jump with a strong leap of 1.66m.
