Spalding sprint ace William Hughes produced one of the performances of the day for Lincolnshire at an inter-counties match at Cudworth on Saturday.
Hughes, who was one of 11 Nene Valley Harriers athletes representing the county in the the under-13 and under-15 event Barnsley, won both the 100m and 200m events in typical fashion.
But it was his stellar showing in the medley relay event which had the crowd from all counties talking.
The 100m runner fumbled the change over, meaning Hughes literally had to turn around and take the baton from him ahead of his 200m stint.
When he eventually faced the correct direction, the team were some 5m behind the field. However, not only did he catch them within 50m, but he passed over to Nene Valley team-mate Nathan Pickering almost 20m ahead.
Pickering was up against the English Schools under-15 boys’ 300m champion and held the gap over the same distance, allowing the team to eventually win the relay by over 50m.
Hughes had earlier dominated the sprints, as he has done all season.
He ran a good 11.7secs in the 100m after a slow start and then clocked 23.3secs to destroy the 200m field – leading into the home straight and then pulling away from the rest.
It was another fine day for the Hughes family as Charles, William’s twin brother, also dominated the competition in the field. He scored well in the shot put with 12.43m, then threw 28.86m in the discus and 37.81m in the javelin.
Elsewhere, Hannah Knight was making her Lincolnshire county team debut and sat on the under-13 girls’ 800m race leader throughout the first lap. As the race heated up she held on well to finish in a personal best (PB) time of 2.38.6mins.
Another county debutant was Emily Davis, who ran both the 200m and also recorded a PB with her time of 29.6secs.
Although a tough race, she held her own and then led out the 4x100m relay team setting them up for a good finish.
Harry Burchnall was also competing in the 800m against the under-15 boys.
He stormed ahead over the first 400m and led the way until the final bend, where he was caught by the eventual winner.
Burchnall still recorded a good PB time of 2.13.1mins, which takes almost a second off his previous best performance.
He followed this up with a strong 300m run of 41.8secs, which was marginally off his PB. Another on 300m duty was Pickering, who clocked 39.8secs to finish second.
Paula Naylor found the weather and competition tough as she completed her 800m in a time of 2.46.8mins.
Olivia Thompson and Jasmine Allen both found the under-15 girls’ long jump tough going. An uphill run-up with strong side winds made getting the jumps in difficult – and the girls recorded 4.55m and 4.67m respectively.
Thompson had to leave the long jump as soon as she had made her third attempt to run a 100m race of 14.0secs.
Allen, meanwhile, had a bit longer to relax after her frustrations in the long jump and ran into a strong head wind round the bend of the 200m. She dug deep and dominated the B string race, winning by a clear two seconds.
Her time of 27.0secs was good in the conditions and was only beaten by the talented Amy Hunt, who took the under-15 girls’ award for the best performance of the day.
Molly Shaw threw the javelin 20.60m in her under-15 girls event, while Luke Taylor recorded a distance of 32.01m in the male version.
Taylor also stepped in to help the team throwing the shot put alongside Charles Hughes and recorded 7.27m.
Despite the great effort shown, the Lincolnshire team finished sixth – showing the strength of the other counties in the competition.
