Nene Valley Harriers’ Edgars Sumskis set a new Southern League 2km Steeplechase record in the Southern Athletics League Division One fixture at Bromley last week.
The Latvian international completed five laps of the track in 5:47.06, finishing almost 200m clear of the runner up.
Even for a Division One fixture, standards were particularly high, but having won the league in two out of the last three seasons Nene Valley have become the team to beat.
Despite finishing fourth there were some outstanding performances from athletes both young and not so young as the Nene Valley conveyor belt continues to produce a steady flow of talented youngsters.
Teenage sprinter Ronan Rawlings took on a strong 200m field and won in a new PB of 22.13.
The in-form youngster took the 100m runners up spot in a season’s best time of 10.89.
Emily Maltby achieved second in the 100m hurdles with a time of 17:38, and Rosie Jacobs won the B race, and was just half a second slower than her teammate.
Maltby was clearly Nene Valley’s athlete of the meeting and won the long jump with a leap of 5.03m and the triple jump with a distance of 11.17m.
The 23-year-old finished second in the B high jump and third in the 100m.
Youngster Jasmine Allen won the B long jump ahead of Southampton AC athlete Jasmyn Allen.
The Nene Valley athlete was second in the B 100m
Martin Tinkler suffered a rare defeat in the shot, finishing second despite a 14.42m throw.
Simon Achurch took second place in the B event. However, normal service was resumed as the pair of champion throwers won the A and B discus with Tinkler gaining a new PB of 43.81m.
Achurch also won the B javelin.
The ladies maintained their usual good form in the throws, and Becki Hall won the shot with a 12.67m throw. Lydia Church won the B event with a new PB of 10.76m.
Veteran Andrea Jenkins threw a season’s best 39:62m to win the discus. Becki Hall added to her points tally with second place in the B event.
There was also a pair of second places in the hammer with Jenkins and Kelly Lawrence taking the honours.
With the Nene Valley team depleted for this meeting team captain David Bush led by example competing in six events, and claimed runners up position in the javelin and B long jump.
Emily Maltby and Rosie Jacobs also both took part in half a dozen events.
