Author: valley
Club response to the reducing of restrictions put on by the club due to the impact of COVID19
To all club members
As chairperson of Waveney Valley Athletics Club, I would like to communicate the clubs’ response to the reducing of restrictions put on the club by the impact of COVID19.
We are now restarting senior & junior training sessions meeting the guidelines given to us by English Athletics. With the current 5+1 restrictions this reduces who can join the sessions so to help could I ask you to join the WhatsApp group relating to your running group colour (Lowestoft) or name (Beccles). Coaches can help members join the correct group and for the time being this is what the club will use for training session announcements and involvement.
Due to the current situation, Waveney Valley Athletics Club Seniors & Juniors membership fees will only be the English Athletics portion which is £15 for the rest of the 2020 year up to 31st March 2021. We still need to charge the English Athletics portion to maintain affiliation and the associated benefits.
- Runners who have already paid the full WVAC membership fee so far, or choose to do so for this season will have their 2021–22 membership fee reduced by the difference for that year. Ultimately no member will be left out of pocket over the two seasons. Another option in this scenario would be to use this excess payment towards club kit should you require it.
- For the seniors, any Suffolk Winter League XC fees will be paid for by the members who take part at the event for the 2020–21 season (should they go ahead) as this cost would usually come out of the membership fee.
- The juniors will also be paying any track and field competition fees if or when events happen.
Second Claim members are invited to renew at a reduced rate of £10 for the year.
We feel as a club that this is the best way of overcoming the current situation with COVID19 and its impact on the club and our members.
If any runner is having difficulty paying this reduced fee please contact, in confidence, one of the committee members or myself to have a chat about how the club can help.
I hope you understand the route the club is taking and please have patience with the volunteers who are helping run our club and the added tasks they have taken on board.
Thank you for your time
Mike Illingsworth
Chairperson
Suffolk Winter League XC results 2019/20
The full and final results of the Suffolk Winter League 2019/20 are now available and can be viewed here in Excel format:
https://www.waveneyvalley.org/wp-content/xc-temp/SWL-Juniors-2019-20-Final.xls
https://www.waveneyvalley.org/wp-content/xc-temp/SWL-Results-Sen-2019-20-Final.xls
http://suffolkathletics.org.uk/suffolk-winter-league/ in PDF format
A brief summary of the league follows…
Seniors
69 Waveney Valley seniors represented the club over 5 events in the 2019/20 Suffolk Winter League. This was a fantastic turn out for the club, and it is also great to see several members finishing in the top 3 within the individual categories.
Our combined Waveney A team secured 6th place overall, with our B team claiming 4th place and our C Team 3rd place, of the 19 teams that competed.
The following athletes participated in 3 or more events in the league to help secure the clubs fantastic set of results;
Faith Brown, Lauren Finch, Lore Lambein, Emily Harding, Rosemary Plant, Debbie Foster, Helen Armstrong, Natalie Brown, Sarah Norman, Caroline Clamp, Carolyn Gosling, Sarah Bradley, Alison Cooper, Ann Millett, Mary Jones, Ben Ford, Dominic Oliver, Oliver Hogg, Tim Earl, Chris Pimlott, Paul Wright, Rob Reid, David Woods, Peter Lang, Alan Bradley, Karl Brady, Mike Bretton, David Doddington, Robin Jones, Stuart Smith, Bill Kingaby, David Mower and Tony Millett.
A big thank you to all who competed and represented the club!
Juniors
11 of Waveney Valley’s juniors represented the club over 5 events in the 2019/20 Suffolk Winter League. Our Waveney A team claimed 6th place overall, with our B team claiming 12th place, and our C team claiming 16th place, of 32 teams that competed in the series.
The following athletes participated in 3 or more events in the league to help secure the clubs fantastic set of results;
Louie Wright, William Browne, Cameron Wedon, James McAllen, James Burgess, Cohen Copeman and Zak Barber (who second claims for us).
A notably mention to James McAllen who tied with the same amount of points as the athlete awarded 1st place.
Finally a massive thank you from all at Waveney Valley to Paula Hazell who has acted as the clubs Cross Country co-ordinator for many, many years and now hands over the reins to Jon Wedon.
Thanks Paula for all you have done for Waveney Valley!
Sportshall Club Champs 2019
Athletics Awards Evening
Track and Field athletics members from Waveney Valley AC were recognised on Friday night with the annual awards presentation evening taking place at Rookery Park golf club.
Alongside a disco, athletes and parents were reminded of both the team and individual achievements of many of the clubs athletes over the year.
Presentations were made to the track and field club champions who received their engraved champions shields:
U11s Cameron Wedon and Ana Colbridge
U13s James Burgess and Agatha Gouldby
U15s Joel Burgess and Kiera Kane
U17s Tom Spurgeon and Abeni Beckham
Seniors Josh Mayston and Michaela Gooch
Other athletes were recognised for their improvement and others for specific athletics disciplines:
U11 most improved Oscar Chong and Erin Stocking
U13 most improved Cohen Copeman and Ruby Benson-Smith
Best Sportshall Joel Burgess and Tia Duncan
Best XC William Browne and Ella Newman
Best T&F Michael Van-Haren and Abeni Beckham
Coaches Athlete Josh Mayston and Ana Colbridge
Athletes Athlete Oscar Chong and Agatha Gouldby
Further presentation were made to many of the clubs athletes who had reached the AAA standards in one or more events.
Special thanks to parent volunteers Nicky Mayston and Natasha Gouldby for organising the evening.
The following day, Saturday, saw the clubs younger athletes – U11s, U13s and U15s compete in the clubs Sportshall Championships. Sportshall mirrors outdoor track and field athletics, but modified for indoors. The clubs athletes competed over two running events, standing long jump, speed bounce along with shot put (chest push for U11s).
With only two weeks indoor training, there were some exceptional performances standing the club in good stead for the Suffolk Sportshall league which starts next week in Ipswich.
Combining the performances over the five events identified the new club champions, along with silver and bronze medalists:
U11B Cameron Wedon (120), James Whittaker/Oscar Chong (114) and James Skinner (112)
U11G Ana Colbridge/Taya Hugo (122), Summer Phipps (115) and Erin Stocking (114)
U13B James Burgess (118), James McAllen (114) and Jude Benson-Smith (108)
U13G Agatha Gouldby (124), Ruby Benson-Smith (115) and Tia Duncan/Eve Westgate (113)
U15B Nathan Littlejohns (124 and Seth Frankland (121)
U15G Oriana Hugo (124) and Leigha Mayston (48)
Track & Field Video Competition
The winning video!!
East Anglian League Finals
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)
Inter-counties Invitation
Lowestoft Scores Juniors
The junior Lowestoft Scores race, over 1.4 miles, Great Yarmouth & District AC were winners of the Boys 13-15 age category Daniel Harrison 8:03, Girls 13-15 Brooke Oram 9:55 and Girls 9-12 Allyna Mukuya 9:10. Waveney Valley’s Lewis Barnes won the Boys 9-12 in 8:29. Other trophy winners for Waveney were Boys 9-12 2nd Oscar Chong 8:51, 3rd James McAllen 8:54, Girls 13-15 3rd Oriana Hugo 10:38.
Also competing for Waveney in the combined 9-12 and 13-15 junior race were: 4 Thomas Spurgeon 8:26, 5 William Browne 8:29, 7 George Browne 8:37, 12 Josh Smith 8:54, 18 Theo Chong 9:20, 21 Cameron Wedon 9:35, 24 Ana Colbridge 10:06, 25 Cohen Copeman 10:11, 26 Taya Hugo 10:14, 27 Gabriel Fellas 10:19, 29 Henry Reynolds 10:39, 32 Etienne Fellas 10:50, 33 Ella Newman 10:52, 35 Cruz Harewood 10:56, 36 Louie Wright 11:11, 41 Charlie Mudd 11:58, 42 Jake Robinson 11:59, 43 Alfie Caplin 12:17, 47 Bailey Dootson 15:40.
Big thanks to Birds Eye for its sponsorship, Christchurch for HQ facilities, all of the marshals, first aiders, traffic management officers and helpers.
Club T&F Champions 2019
We recently had our Club Track and Field Championship, held over two days.
Many of our athletes put in fantastic performances with special mention to Kiera Kane, she beat the 5 year old U15g High Jump record!
Overall positions
U11g
1st- Ana Colbridge 170 points
2nd- Erin Stocking 158 points
3rd- Ashlea Hunt 108 points
U11b
1st- Cameron Weddon 187 points
2nd- Oscar Chong 158 points
3rd- Jake Robinson 105 points
U13g
1st- Agatha Gouldby 296 points
2nd- Eve Westgate 251 points
3rd- Kitty Van Haren 250 points
U13b
1st- James Burgess 377 points
2nd- Cohen Copeman 339 points
3rd- Lewis Barnes 312 points
U15g
1st- Kiera Kane 293 points
2nd- Laila Spurgeon 204 points
3rd- Amber English 155 points
U15b
1st- Joel Burgess 459 points
2nd- Vaughan Beckham 439 points
3rd- William Browne 381 points
U17w
1st- Abeni Beckham 366 points
U17m
1st- Tom Spurgeon 441 points
SW
1st-Kaly Gooch 51 points
SM
1st- Josh Mayston 468 points
2nd- Tom Russell 383 points
3rd- Paul Wright 151 points
The photo shows our 2019 Club Champions.
U13 Inter-Counties Selection
Congratulations to these 4 athletes, called up to represent Suffolk at the Derek Crookes Inter Counties match at Kingston Upon Thames in July.
Well done to Lewis Barnes, James McAllen, James Burgess and Cohen Copeman!