The first winter competition of the season took place on Saturday for Waveney Valley Athletic Clubs junior athletes. 20 of the Clubs juniors travelled to Taverham High School in Norwich to compete in Round 1 of the Norfolk Sportshall Athletics League, competing against teams from City of Norwich AC (CoNAC), Bungay Black Dog AC (BBD), Ryson AC/W Norfolk AC, Gt Yarmouth & District AC (GYDAC), Dereham and Hethersett High.

The Sportshall Athletics League provides an excellent opportunity for the athletes to continue to compete against other clubs throughout the winter, but in a more relaxed atmosphere to the summer league, with traditional outdoor events modified to be undertaken indoors. It also provides the Clubs young athletes an ideal shop window to be selected for the Norfolk County team, who won last years National final at the Birmingham NEC.

The athletes competed for the Club in the U11 and U13 categories for both girls and boys, with U15’s competing individually. In both categories athletes compete in the 2 lap, 4 lap, standing long jump, vertical jump, speed bounce and relay, with the U11s also undertaking 2 lap hurdles, seated ball throw and 6 lap paarlauf and the U13s the 6 lap, standing triple jump, shot put, 8 lap paarlauf and 4x 2 lap relay.

In the U11 boys team was Theo Hudson, Joel Burgess, Daniel Allen and Benjamin Cone who finished 7th out of 10 teams on the day with 234 points, just 20 behind 4th. An excellent performance taking into account they were 8/9 years competing often against athletes aged 10. Notable performances came from Joel Burgess who won 2 lap hurdles against 17 boys, and came 3rd in the 4 lap, and Theo Hudson, in his first outing for Waveney, who came 3rd out of 18 in the long jump.

The U11 girls team was Maddie Archbold, Grace Forster, Abeni Beckham, Brooke Oram and Maisie Elvin-Andrews who finished 7th from the 13 teams on the day with 213 points, and just 4 points behind 5th. As with the boys, a great performance as the Clubs athletes were younger than their fellow competitors. Notable performances were from Grace Forster who finished 6th out of 25 in the 4 lap and Maddie Archbold, another Waveney debutant finishing 5th out of 25 in the 2 lap hurdles. Grace and Abeni then combined in the paarlauf to come home 5th out of 12 – just 0.3 seconds from 3rd.

The U13 boys team consisted of Tai Elvin-Andrews, Jamie Besford, Dylan Davies, Leon Cousins and Callum. They achieved a 4th place finish on the day with 347 points, just 20 behind the 2nd placed team from CoNAC. Waveney cleaned up in the Shot Put with Dylan continuing his impressive summer form by winning with a throw of 6.90m. Leon came 2nd with 6.02m and also 3rd in the long jump with 2.04m, just 5cm short of the joint winners from CoNAC. Callum finished an impressive 2nd out of 11 in the 2 lap, with Jamie 3rd in the 6 lap.

The U13 girls team were team of the day, with Hannah Mayne, Harriet Lyman, Harriet Gooch, Lily Collins and Mia finishing 3rd with 372 points out of 9 teams, 28 points behind the 2nd placed team from CoNAC. Hannah was the athlete of the day winning both the long jump with a leap of 1.99, the vertical jump with 48 and finishing 2nd in the 2 lap. Harriet Gooch continued to impress in the speedbounce with 72 jumps. Hannah and Mia performed very well in the 8 lap paarlauf with a 2nd place finish, and despite some slick batons changes, the girls finished 5th in the relay.

Charlotte Gooch performed consistently as the Clubs only U15 competitor in this fixture, but with County places up for grabs, more are anticipated at the next fixture.