By Ruth Jones
Nene Valley Harriers’ youngsters battled hard to clinch second place overall at the recent Eastern Young Athletes’ League match at Allianz Park in Hendon.
The result places them seventh in the league table after three matches, which is an agonising one place short of the qualifying position for the league’s cup final.
However, with two more meetings to come there is still time for the Harriers to claim that top six spot.
The under-15 girls and the under-17 boys had the best performances on the day, although there were sparkling achievements in all of the other age groups too.
Under-13 Ben Roberts ran well to place second in the 800m in 2.24.50mins, before also competing in the high jump and javelin.
Meanwhile, under-15 ace Josh Akinwumi won the 80m hurdles in 12.54secs before doing well in the 300m (41.86secs) and jumping 4.45m in the long jump.
Charles Hughes won the javelin with 33.02m in the same age group, while under-17 Alison Church impressed in the javelin, coming second with 26.68m, as well as jumping 8.97m in the triple jump and leaping 4.80m in the long jump.
The stars of the day in the under-15 girls included Megan Ellison and Kelsi Ellis, who won the A and B strings in the 800m in times of 2.21.55mins and 2:33.48mins respectively, Rosie Fresen, who won the pole vault in 2.20m, and Alex Pullen and Jasmine Allen, who won both long jump competitions in 5.06m and 4.72m.
Ellis then went on to win the 300m in 45.47secs, while Allen took the 100m in a storming 13.05secs and was third in the 200m in 27.35secs.
In the throws, Lydia Church, Alison’s sister, had an excellent day, putting in strong performances in the discus, shot put and hammer with throws of 18.79m, 8.32m and 30.51m, while Tierney Augustine won the discus with a 25.40m effort.
Alex Hampson again dominated the under-17 1,500m race, comfortably winning in 4.16.14mins, with Olly Bowling taking the B race spoils in 4.26.74mins.
Bradley Spurdens also had an excellent day’s racing, winning both the 400m and 800m in 53.03secs and 2.00.88mins respectively, while Rob Shaw dominated the shot put, winning easily with 13.9m before also competing in the discus and hammer.
The next match at Basildon on July 13 is a crucial one, being not only the penultimate fixture of this season’s league, but it also falls the day after the English Schools Athletics Championships.
