It was a busy end to the season for Colchester Harriers Joy Ogunleye and Rebecca Jeggo.

On Saturday both had an amazing experience competing at the Great North City Games. The event was held on a purpose-built track at the iconic Gateshead quayside. This included some of the top athletes from the UK as well as the Diamond league circuit, with whom Joy and Rebecca stayed at the same hotel as on the Friday.  They enjoyed dinner with GB sprinter Richard Kilty, before meeting others including Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford. Both Colchester athletes qualified for the event based on their performance at the English Schools championships in July and competed over the unusual distance of 150m straight.

In the first heat Rebecca finished second in a time of 17.90 qualifying for the “A” final later in the day. In heat two Joy finished third, qualifying for the “B” final with a time of 18:28.

After a short turn around, and in worsening weather conditions, Joy improved her time to 18:27, finishing second in this “B” race.

Later in the afternoon after what was a very wet and nervy start line, and on the third attempt after an athlete disqualification, Rebecca finished third in her final in an improved time of 17:76.

Sunday saw both travel to Bedford for the UK final of the Youth Development league. The two top teams from the North, the Midlands and South of England premier divisions were competing for the UK title and the right to travel to Europe to represent their country. Joy and Rebecca were part of their higher claim Shaftsbury Barnet squad.

In the 100m Rebecca took A string gold in a time of 12:22, with Joy also taking gold in the B race in 12:14. Rebecca also competed in the 200m, again taking A string gold in a time of 25:01. Both athletes ran in the 4 X 100m relay running strong legs helping to give Shaftsbury the lead off the last bend and ultimately silver in the race.