Nene Valley Harriers got their Eastern Young Athletes’ League season off to a fine start in the opening fixture at the Embankment as they finished second behind last season’s unbeaten champions Ipswich AC.
Consistency was the name of the game, with all the Nene Valley age group teams finishing in the top three, with the exception of the under-17 girls.
The meeting featured some outstanding performances from the Nene Valley youngsters and a highlight was provided by Donovan Capes. He threw the discus a record-breaking 29.07m, which puts him at number one in the under-13 UK rankings.
The other throwers also performed superbly. Kai Harrison hurled the discus 45.10m and Luke Taylor launched his javelin 52.71m as both under-17 boys achieved English schools qualifying distances.
The under-13 girls enjoyed a stack of personal bests (PBs) in the middle distance events. Amelia Divine (2.43.1mins) and Alexa Boole (2.50.2mins) beat their previous fastest 800m times, as did 1,500m runners Lottie Hemmings (5.26.1mins) and Josie Knight (5.43.8mins).
Katie Marsh took part in three events and came away with three PBs – including a 3.84m long jump.
Under-15 Danielle Pusey won the hammer with a throw of 21.61m and there were also winning performances from Roseanna Clarke, in the shot, high jumper Emily Davis and long jumpers Katie Calcutt and Megan Williams.
Under-17 long jumper Jasmine Allen won with a 5.25m leap, while high jumper Ffion Lewis was also a winner.
The Harriers also scored heavily in the 800m and 1,500m with fine runs from Amber Park, Katie Porter, Josephine Fortune and Ellie Piccaver. Theo Briston achieved a sprint double at under-13 level, winning the 100m in 13.4secs and the 200m in 27.9secs.
William Kong won the boys’ under-15 200m with a 24.9secs clocking and George Harrison pulled off a discus and javelin winning double.
There was a massive under-17 win for Aarron Hunt on his league debut, as he finished 11 seconds clear of the field with a 1,500m time of 4.17.3mins.
William Hughes and Ronan Rawlings dominated the sprints with two wins apiece in the 100m and 200m.
Elsewhere, there were also victories for B string discus thrower Charles Hughes and Bartosz Wozincki in the javelin.
- Nene Valley’s Ladies stole the show in the opening fixture of the Eastern Masters Track and Field League.
Despite only fielding a team of four athletes, the golden oldies performed heroically taking second place in the seven-team competition.
All four members of the team have previously won national honours, and it showed as the quality quartet won all bar one of their events.
On the track, Philippa Taylor and Yvonne Scarrott sped to comfortable 3,000m victories in their age groups and Claire Smith made it a sprint double winning the over-35 100m and 400m races with times of 13.5secs and 67.7secs.
Predictably, Andrea Jenkins comfortably won both the hammer and shot.
Nene Valley’s flying foursome also tied for first place in the 4x100m relay, despite their team containing just one sprinter.
Peterborough AC ladies finished fourth with Judith Jagger their only winner in the over-50s shot.
The tables were turned in the men’s contest, with Peterborough AC winning and Nene Valley finishing fourth.
It was, however, a close fought battle between the top four with Corby AC and Huntingdon AC finishing second and third.
Peterborough fared well on the track, with John Pike winning the over-35 3,000m and Paul Larkin first in the over 50 race.
Pete Brantom took maximum points in the 1,000m walk and David Whitehead was first in the over-60’s 100m with a 13.7 clocking.
Nene Valley enjoyed most of their success away from the track and the versatile Adam Fidgett won the over-35 pole vault and long jump.
Simon Achurch threw 39.99m in the over-35 hammer and 11.14m in the shot for his two first places.
Nene Valley’s only success on the track came in the over-50s 100m, which saw Ricky Huskisson win comfortably with a 12.6secs clocking.
