We end the track and field season with the East Anglian League final taking place in Bury St Edmunds. Over four league rounds, Waveney’s athletes competed against 20 other clubs across East Anglia, with the top eight clubs qualifying for Sundays final match, with Waveney’s U13 girls and boys teams both qualifying.
Up against the cream of East Anglia, Waveney’s athletes performed strongly, especially bearing in mind Waveney was the only club qualifying without a home synthetic track, or even grass 400m track! The U13 girls placed eighth on the day with 50 points, just a point adrift of Leighton Buzzard, however the boys team finished in an impressive 3rd place with 89 points, tying with the much larger Ipswich Harriers, and just behind City of Norwich AC and Cambridge and Coleridge.
On the day, two club records fell – Emma Witherington in the javelin with 23.12m, for 2nd place on the day, and the boys 4x 100m relay team consisting of James McAllen, Cohen Copeman, Jude Benson-Smith and James Burgess recording 57.1s.
Along with Emma, Tia Duncan, Agatha Gouldby, Kitty Van-Haren and Ruby Benson-Smith were in action for the girls. Other than Emma in the javelin, the girls other best results also came in the throws, where Agatha recorded a best on the day of 8.19m in the ‘A’ shot put competition for 2nd place, with Emma 6.23m in the ‘B’ shot put event for 1st place.

(U13 Girls photo to follow)

Joining the boys relay quartet were Thomas Supple, Liam Bridges, Lewis Barnes and Josh Smith. Thomas recorded the only ‘A’ string victory with a PB in the discus of 18.96m, a further victory was recorded by Jude Benson-Smith in the ‘B’ string shot put with 7.63m. James McAllen ran strongly in the 100m and 200m recording two PB’s, and just a tenth of the club record for a 100m 2nd place with 13.5s. His 200m clocked in at 28.3s. Usually a 1500m runner, Cohen Copeman claimed 2nd place in the ‘B’ 800m race registering 2:31.7s, with Burgess 2:28.6s in the ‘A’ race. A strong 1500m race saw Lewis Barnes, on his birthday narrowly miss out on the top three with 5:03.2s in 4th, with Josh Smith back on form in the ‘B’ race. Barnes was also well placed in the 75m hurdles, before clipping the final hurdle. In the high jump, Copeman and Benson-Smith claimed 3rd places in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ events with 1.30m and 1.20m respectively, and in the ‘A’ shot put, Burgess took a further 3rd with a best of 7.80m. Bridges continued to throw consistently in the javelin with a best on the day of 21.12m.

There were many fellow Waveney athletes in action in the earlier rounds scoring points which helped the team reach the final.
Focus for Waveney’s athletes now turns to the indoor sportshall season for younger athletes, along with cross country for all ages.

(U13 Girls photo to follow)