Harriers swoop for third place

Stuart Watson

IPSWICH Harriers Athletics Club overcame a large number of unavailabilities to secure a third place spot in the Eastern Young Athletes League at the fifth and final round in Bury St Edmunds.

Competing at the West Suffolk Athletics track, the Harriers' attempts to overcome some strong opposition was hamstrung from the start with a number of their key team members being away on holiday.

However, despite the reduced numbers, the Ipswich side battled on to finish just 21 points behind second place Stevenage and a full 99 points ahead of fourth placed West Suffolk.

Harriers now await the results elsewhere to find out whether they we will be in the end-of-season final or the plate competition on September 14.

At Bury, it was Ipswich's Under-13 girls team that suffered particularly from the holiday season. Only two girls - Enya Moore and Emily Lambert - were available but they more than returned their fair share of points to the Ipswich pot.

Only Luton athlete Hepzibah Ogunro prevented the pair claiming a clean sweep in the 100m and 200m, while Moore recorded a personal best of 27.6s on her way to winning the 200m 'B' string.

Moore then finished second in the shot, while Lambert gained third in the high jump.

Meanwhile, the U15 girls were up against exceptional West Suffolk athlete Montana Jackson and, as a result, Ipswich's Jessica Crissell had to settle for second place behind her in the long jump and the 100m.

Charlotte Shelley then claimed an impressive treble - winning the high jump, the 200m and the 'B' string shot.

Sian Fagg won the 'A' string shot and discus, while Melissa Masters won the 'B' string discus.

Elsewhere, there was further success for Ipswich's U17 girls. Charlotte Cattermole finished second in the 100m and won the 'A' string shot with Nicole Holmes winning the 'B' string equivilant.

Claire Welbourne won the 'B' string javelin, while Alex Leigh-Pearson came fourth in the 'A' string. Leigh-Pearson then finished a close second in her regular event of the 200m.

Becky Low came third in the 'B' string 200m and then won the high jump.

As with the U13 girls, Ipswich's U13 boys suffered from holidays, however, the available quartet of Kasey Hagan, Errol Thompson, Fabian Fadeyi and Harri Mortimore proved a formidable team.

Hagan obtained a PB of 1.48m in winning the high jump and came a close second in the 'A' string hurdles with another PB of 13.7s.

Thompson won the 'B' string high jump and recorded a PB of 4.61m in winning the long jump, while Fadeyi won the 'B' string.

Harri Mortimore then won both the throwing events of discus and shot, before all four combined to storm the relay - winning by seven seconds, or around 60 metres - against a very good Luton team.

Caine Sobers once again produced an exceptional display for the U15 boys, advancing his PB to 1.75m on his way to winning the high jump, before winning the long jump and the 'B' string 100m.

James Mann won the 'B' string high and long jumps, Matt Constable won both the 100m and 200m 'A' strings comfortably, while Sam Bradwell picked up useful points in the javelin and discus.

Finally the U17 boys put on a brilliant display and nearly won their particular battle with Luton. Matti Mortimore won all three throwing events in style, ably backed up by Chris Bradshaw who won the 'B' string javelin.

Daniel Topping-Green won the 'B' discus, while Bradshaw, who had won the pole vault, came third in the 'A' string high jump.

Anthony Kitterman won the 'B' string with a height of 1.60m and then went on to produce a storming race with Rhys MacDonald in the 400m. Both recorded the same time of 53.9s and won the 'B' and 'A' strings respectively.

The U17 boys relay team then powered their way to a comfortable victory to round off a good competition for Ipswich.

Eastern Young Athletics League

1st Luton 702

2nd Stevenage 548

3rd Ipswich 527

4th West Suffolk 428

5th Colchester 243

6th Braintree 220

7th Ryston & West Norfolk 29