IPSWICH Harriers Athletics Club proved the best of the rest in the fourth round of the Eastern Young Athletics League.

Stuart Watson

IPSWICH Harriers Athletics Club proved the best of the rest in the fourth round of the Eastern Young Athletics League.

Competing at their home venue of Northgate Sports Centre, Ipswich were beaten into third place by the all-round strength of Peterborough and Southend who finished first and second respectively.

However, the margin between those above them was far smaller than the distance between those below, the Suffolk club only 58 points behind second place and comfortably 161 points clear of fourth place Cambridge.

Angela Falconer gave Ipswich a good start by winning the Under-13 girls' sprint hurdles in comfortable fashion.

Emily Lambert and Enya Moore then dominated the U13 sprints by winning the both the 100m and 200m in the A and B string respectively. Moore was in particularly great form, recording two personal bests of 13.2s in the 100m and 27.8s in the 200m.

Lambert then went on to win the A string high jump, with Amalia Serrietello winning the B string.

Bridie Leigh-Wilkins gained valuable points for the team with a runners-up spot in the shot, Ellie Bloomfield following suit in the discus.

The first points for the U15 girls were obtained by Jess Crissell and Flo Cage, the former winning the long jump and the latter finishing second in the 100m.

Charlotte Shelley, fresh from her high jump triumph at the National Schools Championships, then ran well to finish second in the 200m, while Sian Fagg won the discus and came second in the javelin.

Rosemary Aldous then produced a good all-round throwing performance by winning her discus and javelin events and coming second in the shot.

The U17 girls team were buoyed by the performances of Sian Jones who won the B string 100m before going on to claim the A string 200m and long jump. Ella O'Riordan's javelin victory was the other highlight for this age group.

Elsewhere, there were some good performances from Ipswich's U13 boys. Despite being under pressure to report to the relay team, Kasey Hagan obtained a PB of 1.47m in the A string high jump. Errol Thompson then helped Ipswich take a clean sweep in the event by winning the B string.

The roles were then reversed in the sprint hurdles, Thompson this time winning the A string and Hagan the B.

Harri Mortimore won both the throwing events of discus and shot before the relay team of Hagan, Thompson, Fabian Fadeyi and Tim Jenkins finished as runners-up.

The best performance of the day took place in the U15 boys' high jump where Caine Sobers recorded a PB of 1.74m. That jump puts him in the national reckoning for his age group in both high and long jumps.

Sobers went on to just miss out on first place in the long jump, however George Park won the B string in 4.98m, while Liam Turner won the B string high jump.

Frank Bloomfield won the discus and finishing third in the hammer, Micheal Hart finished second in the javelin, while Harman won the B string discus.

Adam Rawling won the U17 boys' 100m B string, with Rhys McDonald, helping out after his exertions in the National Championships, won the 200m B string.

Elliot Doe was involved in another thrilling 400m race, although this time finishing a very close third, while Jordan Ali produced two good performances in the 800m before winning the 1500m B string.

Ipswich's relay team of McDonald, Rawling, Doe and Jamie Cole finished the event off on a high with a great win in the final race of the day.

Results: Peterborough 658, Southend 614, Ipswich 556, Cambridge 395, Colchester, 337, Ryston & West Norfolk 42.