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)

The winning video!!

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)

Junior athletes (from left) Joel, Vaughan and Abeni, attending the SEAA Inter County event at Oxford, competing for Suffolk.

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.

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. 

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!