Defending champions Nene Valley Harriers shone on their Southern Athletics League finale with a wonderful win at Norwich.
The Harriers, who finished third in the overall standings, edged a tight meeting that saw them up against Marshall Milton Keynes, Belgrave Harriers and City of Norwich.
At a match where the team were driven by the fact that they had to return their champions trophy to the league – which they unfortunately had been unable to defend – the win at least sees them sign off the season in typically impressive style.
The male throwers were impressive, dropping just two points in all four throwing events. Martin Tinkler had two wins and Simon Achurch a win and a second place – supported by Ken Baker, Sam Wilson and Tomas Saunourious, who all posted wins.
Becki Hall and Lydia Church followed suit in the ladies shot and both also recorded seconds in the discus and hammer respectively. Andrea Jenkins showed support with two second places and Ellie Mae also recorded a throws second place.
Emily Maltby continued to prove a valued asset within the team, recording wins in the long jump, 100m hurdles and triple jump along with second places in the 100m and the same relay.
Lily Hughes found the 100m tough going but got a B string win and then recovered for the 200m where she dominated into the strong wind pulling ahead and away from the field to win the A string.
Further wins for the ladies came from Emma Hornsby (long jump) and Devon Spencer (triple jump).
In the ladies’ man of the match awards, NVH took three of the top six places. Hornsby was the lady of the match with her 5.86m long jump win.
Hall took third place with her shot put win of 12.48m and Jenkins’ hammer throw of 45.83 achieved sixth for her.
In the men’s man of the match stakes, Tinkler took third place with his winning shot put of 8.48m.
The last event of the day epitomised the team spirit; the 400m relay. The ladies went first and young starlet Kelsi Ellis, who had stepped up to the plate scoring in the 200m and 400m due to absentees, led the way but found the strong wind too hard to stay in touch with MK’s Katie James.
Claire Smith took over the running and held the gap with the MK athlete, belying her masters years.
Lily Hughes then took over, an event twice her normal racing distance, and closed the gap down from around 60m to 20m before passing the baton to Rosie Jacobs.
She not only closed the remaining gap but took the lead before hitting the wind.
She kept her form and took the team home two seconds clear of second place.
The men had a tough race with Jake Berney leading the way before passing over to Ollie Bowling. The leading Belgrave team was very strong and Sam Hunt did all he could to keep the gap as small as possible.
David Bush took the team home in second place but the support from the small stands at Norwich truly deserved the overall match win.
Result: 1st Nene Valley 194pts; 2nd Marshall MK 187pts; 3rd Belgrave Harriers 174pts; 4th City of Norwich 169pts.
