On Sunday 10 July, the young green vests certainly rose to the challenge of performing in front of a home crowd and also the soaring temperatures. They finished the day in their best position this season, a good third place behind stalwarts Norwich and Ipswich with a provisional total of 416 points – this is a significant improvement and testamount to the hard work of both the athletes and the Track and Field Coaching team over the past year.

Amongst the performances, notable was Lily Addington who broke the U15 girls Javelin record with a wonderful, best throw of 29.99m, beating her training buddy Aliyah Soames distance set back in 2017 – whilst topping the points in the event, she then went on to win the Discus with a best effort of 14.25  and took a B string second place in the Shot.

Samantha Yearwood earned herself three fantastic pb’s and a hattrick of first place finishes;  starting with a fabulous win in the U15 girls 100m where she held off strong competition to dip at 13.0s, she then made her debut in the Long Jump with a best of 4.03m but had to forgo her third-round effort to dash across the track, change shoes and grab her blocks to line up in the 200m.  With adrenalin pumping, she flew out the blocks, transitioned well off the bend and once  again claimed a great first place and a winning time of 27.6s– knocking over half a second from her previous best.  Yearwood finished her successful day anchoring the U15 girls team home to win a scintillating 4x100m relay.

League competitions are a great opportunity for young developing athletes to try out different  events as well as test out their better honed skills against teams they have competed already this season.  Myles Mardell Smith is proving that he has inherited his parents (and grandparents!) genes; making his first ever appearance in the U13 boys hurdles he managed a clean race to take third place in 16.2m; he then won his 100m B string in 14.7s and then took a rewarding third in the Discus in 16.76m adding six metres to his previous best.

Quentin Cook is certainly going to be one to watch and a fruitful member of the team if his debut is anything to go by.  An excellent 200m against strong competition saw him clock 25.8s for third, he then enjoyed a best leap of 4.76m in the U15 boys long jump to finish third again as well as competing in what could be a very strong U15 boys relay team.

More PB’s tumbled throughout the day with Eliza Shippey taking .46 off her previous 300m, Rohan Dasoar was very humble when learning he had smashed his U13 boys 800m time by almost ten seconds and tried his hand at Shot with a new PB of 6.65m; U15 Beatrice Sivyer crushed her 1500m time by eight seconds and took first place in the B string Discus with a best effort of 14.05m. Having only returned to training this spring since pre Covid days, Dylan Stewart showed that he is still an excellent competitor and an exciting prospect in a  number of events – in a tightly fought 100m he clocked 12.2s for second place, he achieved 4.77 jumping off the wrong leg in Long Jump and kept his spectators engaged in an exciting High Jump where he was the clear winner with a final clearance of 1.55m. 

Using a new pole, Chloe Prosser gained maximum points and matched her previous best of 2.10m in the U17 Pole-vault and recorded the third longest throw in the Javelin.  Harrison Leek reduced his 200m time down to 25.6s as well as improving his Long Jump by 11 cm ; Jake Philips tool six seconds off his U17 men’s 800m time.  Due to team changes, Daniel Duthie  took on three sprints, but should feel justly proud to have claimed three PB’s in the 100m ( 13.5s) , 200m ( 28.9s ) and 300m ( 46.2s).

Thanks as ever go to the volunteer Officials and helpers who worked throughout the long day to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the competition.

Sadly this was  the last EYAL match of the year due to a lack of clubs wishing to host.  If there is sufficient interest and support from members, the Club are thinking of hosting an in-house / invitational event later in the summer.

Results were correct at the time of publication and subject to ratification.