Junior athletes shine at county Sportshall event

West Norfolk Athletics Club had 11 juniors compete in a variety of disciplines from throwing, running and jumping at the 2025 Norfolk Sportshall County Championships.Held at the UEA Sportspark, in Norwich, sportshall is a fun competition for under 11s through to under 15s.Over the last three months, sportshall has been running a league event where clubs and schools can enter athletes as a team.This event allows athletes to compete on an individual basis and gives youngsters the potential to represent the county in a regional team event.James Watts continued his great form from the league and took home gold in the four-lap in 54 sec.He narrowly missed out on a medal in the chest push coming in fourth with 5m, seventh in the two-lap, 26.3 sec and 10th in the speed bounce with 33 bounces.Jessica Watts, competing in her first individual sportshall match was superb throughout. In the speed bounce, she was seventh with 39 bounces, 10th in the four-lap with 59.8 sec,13th in the triple jump, 4.04m and 18th in the two-lap in 28.7 sec. Sofia Gilboy took home one of each colour medal with some real standout performances, most noticeably in the vertical jump where she finished first with 50cm, second in the speed bounce with 47 bounces, third in chest push with 6.75m and sixth in the long jump with 1.74m.Sammel Howard, competing as one of the youngest in his age category, held his own and was so close to taking home bronze in the two-lap, narrowly missing out in fourth with 24.8 sec, fourth in the speed bounce with a fantastic 71 bounces, one jump behind third, fifth in the long jump with 1.95m and sixth in the triple jump with 5.72m.Wilf Gosnell showed his ever-improving form in the shot put, with a great PB of 5.67m to finish eighth. Gosnell also finished fifth in the speed bounce with 64 bounces.Luke Anderson has been working extremely hard on his sprinting over the summer and the efforts have paid dividends bringing home two golds, one in the four-lap in a time of 49.1 and six-lap in 80.2. Anderson also brought home a silver in the shot with 8.25m and a bronze in the long jump with 2.17mRhys Howard competing in the U13 for the first time as an individual was fifth in the two-lap in a time of 26.3 and 9th in the long jump with 1.72m. Matas Petreikis showed his pedigree with an outstanding performance in all three events.Petreikis claimed gold in the vertical jump with 54cm, silver in the triple jump with 6.46m and silver in the long jump with 2.18.Ella Cooper took part in her first individual sportshall competition and was solid in all four events.She was fifth in the triple jump with 4.68m, eighth in the two-lap in 28.7sec, ninth in the long jump with 1.52 m and 10th in the vertical jump with 32cm. Aidan Howard, recently back from injury was first in the shot with 5.77m and 2nd in the long jump with 2.13m.Anya Faithorn was one of the three West Norfolk athletes to take home one of every coloured medal.She was first in the speed bounce with an extremely impressive 78 bounces, second in the vertical jump with 54cm and third in the long jump with 2.10m and 4th in the shot with 6.88m.It was great to see so much silverware achieved by the West Norfolk AC athletes.A big thank you to all officials, parents, the sportshall committee and helpers, without these fantastic people events like this would not be possible.