Saturday saw athletes from Waveney Valley Athletics Club travel over to Taverham, Norwich to compete in round one of the Norfolk County Sportshall League. Having already competed in Suffolk’s first Sportshall event two weeks earlier, almost 40 athletes from Waveney competed amongst almost 200 including those from City of Norwich AC, Gt Yarmouth & District AC, Bungay Black Dog RC, West Norfolk AC and Dereham.
This is Waveney’s second full competitive winter season following their Junior section re-starting, and some very fine athletes are starting to emerge, with some fantastic performances in the competition including a number of debuts from Waveney’s newer athletes who pulled on the black yellow and red shirt for the first time.
Waveney had two U11 girls competing, with the best performing Waveney team on the day finishing in 2nd place out of the 11 teams. Notable performances came from Shamara Hammonds who won the standing long jump with a leap of 1.94m, beating 18 others in the process and also beat 19 other girls in the 2 lap race with a time of 25.0s. She also claimed 3rd from 19 in the 2 lap hurdles. Abeni Beckham came 3rd out of 17 in the 4 lap with 57.3s and also took 3rd in the vertical jump. Waveney claimed 3rd and 5th in the Speedbounce with Maisie Elvin-Andrews (48) and Libby Mayall (46).
There were three U11 boys teams from Waveney competing in a field of eight, with Waveney’s best again second to a team from the much larger CoNAC. Making his debut, Jordan Smethurst claimed a fantastic 2nd from 16 in the 2 lap with Joel Burgess taking victory from a field of 15 in the 4 lap. Joel and Isaac Phillips claimed victory in the Paarlauf, with Isaac also taking 2nd in the chest push.
Waveney had one U13 girls and boys team, although both were again not at full strength, and therefore struggled in the team competition, although the boys still managed 5th out of 7 and just 29 points off victory, with the girls 6th out of 9 teams. For the boys, Callum Hopson sprinted to 3rd from 12 in the 2 lap and 2nd from 12 in the 4 lap, with Jamie Besford also taking 2nd (from 10) in the 6 lap. Callum Hopson and Tai Elvin-Andrews also claimed 3rd and 4th in the standing triple jumps with leaps of 6.30m and 6.26m. For the girls, Mia Hopson ran to 3rd (from 16) in the 2 lap, 2nd (from 15) in the 4 lap, with Ciera Henwood making her debut in the 6 lap with a great 2nd place from 12.
With the U15s competing as individuals, Waveney’s 4 male and female athletes were up against some of the best in the Country with Norfolk’s athletes winning the National Sportshall finals last year. Undeterred, Mason Hodds was the leading U15 Waveney boy finishing 6th out of 13 very strong athletes with 115 points, 14 points behind 3rd place. He managed three 5th place finishes in the 2 lap, 4 lap and shot put. Emily Archbold was the top Waveney girl with another 6th place with 119 points, just 14 points off the winner, this time from 20 other girls. Emily managed a 3rd in the long jump, 4th in the 4 lap and 5th in the shot.