COVID-19 Coronavirus: Suspension of club training sessions

Following this mornings update by UKAthletics and following on from the Government position all WVAC training sessions have been suspended upto and inclusive of Thursday April 30th 2020.

England Athletics have advised “…As a result, England Athletics advises that all face-to-face activity such as club training sessions, events, competitions, club committee and face-to-face meetings, athlete camps, running groups and social events should be suspended until at least the end of April.

The decision has been taken in the interests of athletes, runners, officials, coaches, volunteers, supporters and the wider athletics and running communities. This decision is also in alignment with actions taken by the home country athletics federations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and is similar to action taken by other sports.

Where possible, athletes and runners at all levels are encouraged to maintain their own personal fitness and keep active during this time, while following government guidelines about safe distance and safe exercise environments.”

We will monitor and extend the suspension should this be required.

The advice is to maintain fitness where possible whilst maintaining Social Distancing, coaches can advise on suitable solo sessions if requested.

WVAC

Athletics Awards Evening

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)

East Anglian League Finals

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)

 

Lowestoft Scores Juniors

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.

Club T&F Champions 2019

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. 

 

U13 Inter-Counties Selection

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!

Suffolk County Championships

We had 10 athletes compete in the Suffolk County Championship and a fantastic 6 Champions crowned!

Josh Mayston (SM) 100m bronze
Abeni Beckham (U17) LJ and TJ champion
Kiera Kane (U15) LJ champion, HJ and 100m silver
Vaughan Beckham (U15) LJ and TJ champion
James McAllen (U13) 100m bronze
Agatha Gouldby (U13) Shot Put champion, 100m silver, high jump bronze

Our medalists from the Suffolk County Championships

The clubs fantastic performances:
U13b
James McAllen- 100m 3rd 14.4 & 200m 4th 29.3 (Final 30.2)
Cohen Copeman- 1500m 7th 5:23.1, 100m 7th 15.4 & 200m 3rd in Heat 29.9 (Missed our on the final by just 0.01)
Alfie Caplin- LJ 5th 3.77m
U13g
Agatha Gouldby- SP 1st 7.23m, 100m 2nd 15.9 & HJ 3rd 1.00m
U15b
Vaughan Beckham- LJ 1st 4.87m, TJ 1st 10.75m & 100m 4th 13.4
William Browne- 1500m 6th 5:04.8
U15g
Kiera Kane- LJ 1st 4.03m, HJ 2nd 1.40m & 100 5th in heat 15.1
U17w
Abeni Beckham- LJ 1st 4.40m & TJ 1st 9.37m
U20m
Josh Mayston- 100m 3rd 11.8 & 200m 4th 24.1
Well done everyone, another great day at the oval office!

North Suffolk underway in the Eastern Young Athletes

On Sunday the clubs juniors track and field season kicked off with our first fixture in the Eastern Young Athletes League at Ipswich. After struggling for athletes in this league over the past few years we decided to try forming a composite team with the other local clubs. Beccles and Bungay Harriers and Bungay Black Dogs accepted our invitation and we formed The North Suffolk Composite Team.

We had a successful day, with 36 athletes competing coming in 5th out of 6 clubs, the 5 other clubs are fortunate enough to have facilities we could only dream of so to come 5th and only 23 points off 4th was a great way to start the season. The U13b, U13g, U15b and U17m all came 4th in their age groups.

We had three new club records set on the day and two in the Discus. Milly Weddle in her first outing as an U13g set a new record of 15.93m and in the U17m Michael Van Haren threw 31.65m for a win and a record and in the U17w Abeni Beckham set a new 80mH record with 15.2s With Personal Bests in plentiful supply despite the swirling winds top performances from the day go to Milly Weddle (U13g) winning the Javelin A, and coming 2nd in the A String Shot and Discus, in the U13b Jude Benson-Smith and Alfie Caplin completed a double A & B win in the Shot Putt. In the U15g, Amber English and Kiera Kane produced good Long Jumps to finish 3rd in the A and 2nd in the B, Joel Burgess A and Vaughan Beckham B (U15b) also had good Long Jumps with both coming 2nd in their strings with Joel also picking up a 2nd in the 300m A. In the U17w as well as her club record in the 80mH Abeni picked up a good win in the Triple Jump A and 4th in the Long Jump A and in the U17m Michel Van Haren took two A String wins in the Shot and Discus.

Well done to all the athletes that competed, everyone had good performances which will put them in good stead for the season. Thanks to all the parents that helped out and to Rick Littlejohns, Lynn Emmett and Antony Sinden that officiated the field events, to Vicki Burgess with the new vests and Cavell Beckham who team managed.

The full results will be on the Power of 10 website in a few days

Opening the T&F Season with a Warm-up Meet

On Thursday the clubs athletes embarked on the 2019 Track and Field season at Great Yarmouth. Traditionally a very cold opener and this meeting was no different! With rarely run races for the juniors the club had 6 new club records set and one so close it deserves a mention.

The club records came from James Burgess U13b breaking his own record in the 600m with a 1:48 and he set a new record 8.8 in the 60m, in the U15b Vaughan Beckham and Joel Burgess both ran the same time with 8.3 to set a new 60m record with Joel lowering his 150m time to 19.8. In the U15g Amber English picked up a good win and new record of 23.1 in the 150m and Abeni Beckham ran 22.1 to set a new 150m record for the U17w. Josh Smith narrowly missed out on the U13b Mile record running 5:55.0 missing out by just 0.06s.

Many new athletes competing for the first time did very well especially in such tough conditions, so well done to all!