Nene Valley Harriers finished in third place at the fourth match of the Southern Athletics League at Crawley to edge closer to Division One survival.
It was a day to remember for the Nene Valley ladies’ team, who had a magnificent day and massively outscored their opponents – amassing a score of 106 points compared to their nearest competitors 89 points.
The team had a good spread of age groups representing to club, ranging from under-17 to masters.
However, the individual performance of the day though came from Emma Hornsby, who won the ladies’ long jump by over half a metre with a leap of 5.91m.
Hornsby thus extended her club record and is hoping to beat 6m in the not too distant future.
She also competed in the 100m and recorded a double win, with Lily Hughes coming back to form winning the A string of the same event.
This was the first of a number of double wins, including Hornsby recording her third individual win with a high jump of 1.50m, supported by Rosie Jacobs winning the B string.
Andrea Jenkins recorded double wins when pairing up with Becki Hall in the discus and Lydia Church in the hammer. Hall also secured an individual win with a shot put of 12.21m, continuing her good form this season.
Emily Maltby increased her season’s best in the ladies’ triple jump three times before finishing with a distance of 11.37m and, with Devon Spencer, recorded another double win for the club.
On the track, Maltby and Rosie Jacobs also achieved the double in the short hurdles event.
Also on the track, the club had wins with under-20 Jenny Smith stepping in to replace the sick Chloe Pavey in the 2,000m steeplechase.
Smith, better known as a 400m or 200m sprinter, was spotted as she went over the water jump and went on to record a shock B string win.
The ladies then finished the track with a significant 100m relay win.
The club’s under-17 contingent all competed well and recorded good second and third place finishes with Kelsi Ellis in the 200m and 400m and Imogen Woodard in the 800m and 1,500m.
Ellie Piccaver, in her first outing for the senior team, recorded an impressive second place in the 1,500m, while Jasmine Oldfield ran her first 5k on the track – taking third place and supporting master Nicky Morgan’s second place in the same event.
Meanwhile, the men’s 3,000m team had a total of 106 years of life experience between them – but got stuck into the race with both Paul Parkin and Barry Warne grabbing points for the club.
Warne also scored for the club in the 800m and the 1,500m, while Parkin attempted to fill a gap in the steeplechase before remembering why he had not run one in the last 20 years.
There were other significant volunteers who impressed, too. Under-20 thrower Charles Hughes surprised everyone by volunteering to run the 1,500m and scored as the club’s A string athlete. He is known to be handy over 100m in the relay team, but no one thought he could compete at 15 times that distance.
The men’s team recorded a good double win in the short hurdles thanks to Max Everest and David Bush.
Also gaining maximum points were Martin Tinkler in the discus and Sam Wilson in the B string hammer.
Wilson’s A string team mate Issac Huskisson not only took second place in the hammer, but picked up a point in the 400m hurdles after offering to run.
The great team spirit was clearly evident in the men’s discus, with the four team mates warming up and taking the mickey out of each other.
This led to the other teams also getting involved and a good one-two result for Nene Valley with Martin Tinkler and Simon Achurch.
Throwing ace Achurch also recorded second in the shot put and a third in the javelin, continuing his season of high scores for the club.
The overall points totals on the day were extremely close, with Nene Valley finishing in third place and all of those who competed on the day showing true grit and determination.
The result should have secured the club’s safety from relegation – but the table is extremely close and they still need a result at the final fixture in Norwich on August 20.
