Exams over, school term finished, so holidays have started. This meant many athletes were not around for the Norwich leg of the National Junior League competition last Sunday.

That said the men’s team were able to field athletes for most events with the exception of the 3000m, and the perennial challenge of the pole vault.

The hammer and 2000m steeplechase were attempted by Josh Saydraouten and Joe Gaynor. Josh just beat Joe in the Hammer, whilst it was the other way round in the steeplechase with Joe getting A string 3rd and Josh B string 2nd.

Jonathan Kinahan supported the middle distance races with both the 800 and 1500. He equalled his personal best in the 800 with 2.08.5. Dominic Spike ran B string 800 in 2.09.5.  

Luke Allen jumped into 4th place in Triple Jump, but injured his foot on his first jump, so pulled out of further jumps. Tom Clarke jumped B string. Ian Tobin, with 6.19m, was 5th in the A string Long Jump. Luke won the B string with 6.08m.

Ross Armorgie came in 4th in the High Jump with 1.85m, whilst Tom Clarke cleared 1.50m as the B string. It was good to be able to field and A and B string in the high jump.

Ian Tobin secured 3rd place in the A string 100m with a time of 11.4 seconds. Kenny Howard ran the B string with exactly the same time as Ian to take 2nd. Unfortunately, Kenny picked up an injury in the 100m which put him out for the rest of the day. Dominic Spike gave us a 24 sec 200m. Ian Tobin ran a solid 400m in 52.4 while Joe Gaynor ran 52.7. Josh finished the 400m hurdles with 61.7.

Dom and Ross both got 3rd in the Javelin A and B string. Ross went on to compete with Luke in the Discus. Luke was piped into 4th place by 1cm in the Shot.

Our 4x100m relay team claimed 1st place after an exiting race with good clean handovers. Dom ran 1st leg, handing to Ian who passed to Ross, to run the curve, with Luke finishing for us.

The 4x400m relay team came a creditable 2nd after an another exciting race to finish the day with. Dom, Ross Joe and Josh put it all together.

The men’s team was: Ian Tobin, Ross Armorgie, Luke Allen, Joe Gaynor, Dominic Spike, Kenny Howard, Jonathan Kinahan, Tom Clarke and Josh Saydraouten.  

The holiday season and a Senior Womens match the day before meant the Womens team consisted of only 5 female athletes. The famous five (four and half really as Danielle Currie is still injured and unable to compete in her usual jumping events) did their best to amass enough points to support the men’s squad but with only half of the team sheet filled in, it was an uphill task.

The famous five were Laura Wake, Nina Edwards, Danielle Currie, Hannah Lloyd and Birthday Girl – Chloe Anne Currie.

Laura Wake showed good sprinting form to win both the 100 with 12.4 and 200 with 25.6. She also used the opportunity to get some useful competition practice in some of her heptathlon events in preparation for her English Schools Championships later in the summer. Laura threw an impressive 9.08 in the shot to come third in the A string, ran well in the 100 hurdles to come 3rd with a time of 15.9 but was a little bit out of form in the long jump where she came 6th with a jump of 4.67m.

Hannah Lloyd took a rest from her usual long hurdles to try her hand at a few new events and to brush up her sprinting speed with a 200 race. Hannah achieved 4th place in the B string long jump, 2nd place in the B string shot and ran well to win the B string 200 in a time of 26.5

Nina Edwards was using the match to test her foot having been out with injury for a few weeks. She managed to come through two races by coming 4th in the B string 100 and 4th in the A string 400 without any severe after effects and can now get back to full training in preparation for the National championships in a couple of weeks time. Nina also competed in the High jump and cleared 1.35 easily but when she returned from her 400, the bar was at 1.50m and too high for her to progress any further.

Danielle Currie has been suffering from a foot injury for about two months now and is unable to compete in her favoured Triple Jump event for the rest of the season. However, she is always willing to help out and try her hand with some of the throwing events. In this match, she was 4th in the A string Hammer with a throw of 16.78 and came 5th in the B string Discus with 11.73.

Danielle’s sister and birthday girl Chloe Anne joined her in both the hammer and discus. In the hammer Chloe got a new PB with a massive throw of 8.73 and took great pleasure in throwing the discus just under one metre further than her sister with a throw of 12.46. Chloe went on to compete in the Triple Jump and unfortunately didn’t get her birthday wish in that event and was well below her best.

A very hot day and the team excelled at sunbathing and tucking into peanut butter sandwiches with lashings of ginger beer.

This result left the combined team in 5th place in the match and will leave them mid table for the season when all the final results are in.