On Sunday, Waveney Valley Athletic Club travelled to West Suffolk Athletics Club’s home at the Abbeycroft Track, Bury St Edmunds for the final match in the East Anglian Athletics League. Waveney Valley, who train at East Point Academy in Lowestoft, took a squad of 26 to compete against West Suffolk, Cambridge & Coleridge, City of Norwich AC, Leighton Buzzard, Hunts AC and Diss AC.

Waveney amassed their highest points total of the league with 271 points over the day, yet another improvement over the previous rounds, to finish the day in 5th place. With only 4 Seniors available to compete, and no U17s, this again a proved a very good result for a fledgling Waveney team competing in the league this year for the first time in many years. The days most successful categories were the under 13 boys who finished the day in 4th place and the under 15 girls, also in 4th place. With the team still in its relative infancy, with some disciplines not represented, the Club aims to have top 3 finishes in all categories next year after a strong winters training.

Abeni Beckham, Maisie Elvin-Andrews, Hazel Fairs, Grace Forster and Shamara Hammonds competed for the under 11’s in the events of 80 metres, 600 metres, shot and long jump. Out of an overall field of 20 in the 80m, Shamara recorded the 6th faster time of 12.8s to record a new PB. With a field of 16 in the 600m, Grace was the Clubs faster athlete finishing 5th in a time of 2:15.6s. From a field of 14 in the long jump, Abeni recorded the U11s longest jump of 2.92m to finish 4th. Hazel’s best event was the shot put where she finished 5th with a throw of 3.55m. The Clubs youngest competitor on the day, Maisie who is just 8, competed very well against athletes much older.

In the girls under 13 category, Harriet Gooch, Harriet Lyman and Hannah Mayne competed in the 100m, 200m and 800m, long jump, and the 3 throws. Hannah, following up her PB in Southend on bank holiday Monday, with another PB in the 100m of 14.2 to finish 3rd, and a 4th place finish in the 200m with a time of 30.4. Harriet Lyman finished 5th in the 800m with a time of 3:03.24.9, with Harriet Gooch throwing well to finish 3rd in the javelin and 5th in both shot and discus.

The under 15 girls were represented by Georgia Fairs, Charlotte Gooch, Shannon Hall, Imogen Lyman and Emily Turner, competing in the 100 metres, high jump, long jump and 3 throws. Both Shannon and Charlotte recorded a PBs in the 100m with times of 14.0s and 14.5s to both finish 3rd in their respective races. Emily and Georgia both also recorded PBs in the high jump of 1.35m and 1.10m respectively, with Emily recording a 2nd place finish. Imogen performed well in the 3 throws, recording 3rd place finishes in both shot and discus where she also recorded a PB with 10.54m. The girls also ran the 4x 100m relay to finish 3rd with a time of 59.7s

The under 13 boys were represented by Jamie Besford, Leon Cousins, Dylan Davies, Tai Elvin-Andrews, Tyler Hunt, and Ethan Lee competing in the 75mh, 100m, 200m and 800m, long jump, high jump and the 3 throws. Ethan recorded a PB in the 100m with a time of 16.4 and Jamie ran a strong 800m with a time of 2;46.5 to finish 4th in the ‘A’ string’ with Tyler finishing 3rd in the ‘B’ string with a time of 3:29.2. Tai finished the 75mh in 2nd place with a time of 16.7s. Leon recorded a jump of 3.12m before retiring injured, with Dylan, nationally ranked at 90 in the discus and 247 in the shot, again throwing very well to finish 1st in both the shot and discus (6.96m and 19.48m) and 3rd in the javelin with a throw of 18.18m and a new PB. The boys also completed the relay in a time of 66.9 and a 5th place finish.

The under 15 boys were represented by just Owen Besford, Jake Block and Kieran Covill competing in the 100m, 300m and 800m, high jump, long jump and javelin. Kieran again improved to record 3 PBs, running 12.4s to a 2nd place finish in the 100m, 42.1s and 3rd in the 300m and a jump of 5.00m and 1st place in the ‘A’ long jump. Jake equalled his 100m PB with a run of 13.5s,and recorded a new PB and a 1st place finish in the ‘B’ long jump with 4.09m. Owen, on his league debut finished 2nd in the high jump with a jump of 1.30m.

With just 4 seniors competing for the club in this fixture, for the ladies, Vicki Fairs and Michaela Gooch competed for the Club in the 3 throws – in the shot Vicki recorded a best of 5.79m and a 5th place finish and the javelin, Michaela recorded a throw on 12.81m and a 5th place finish. Both ladies also competed in the discus with throws in excess of 13m. For the men, Alan Fairs competed in 7 events recording 6 new PBs – 5.84m in the shot, 14.52m discus, 22.16 javelin along with a run of 73.6s in the 400m and 12:36.7 in the 3000m. Joe Mayne ran the 3000m in a time of 13:26.4 and a throw of 9.15m in the discus.

The East Anglian League will commence again in 2014, but in the meantime, the Clubs juniors will be competing in the Norfolk Sportshall League throughout the winter.