West Norfolk youngsters back in Sportshall action

The Sportshall Athletics League – a competition across three matches in Lynn and Norwich – returned for juniors aged eight up to 15.Sportshall encompasses both track and field events but in an indoor format, including lapped races where they bounce off boards at each end of the track, as well as relays, jumps and throws.The under-11 boys and girls started their league with a team of four each, allowing them to cover all of the available events on the day for maximum points.The U11 boys saw the top five teams only separated by 15 points.West Norfolk’s team of James Watts, and new members Riley Gray, Arthur Hollingsworth and Duncan Roney ended a fantastic fifth with some superb performances with each taking part in six events.Roney threw a brilliant 10.75 for sixth place in the javelin while Hollingsworth finished well in his running events and fourth in the long jump with 1.56.Watts was first in the four-lap and second in the two-lap. Gray had a fantastic chest push for eighth place and scored consistently well across his events. For the girls, the team of Kacey Gray, Sofia Gilboy, Jess Watts and Teagan Thorne finished an excellent third.Watts continued her unbeaten run on the vertical jump with a big 45cm and was pipped into second place on the chest push.Gilboy ran a fast four-lap for sixth and got PBs in all of her events. Gray threw the javelin 9.75m for sixth and was just one place off that in the chest push while Thorne recorded 1.62 in the long jump for sixth and was second in the javelin with 11.5.Both teams did fantastically well with covering all events between them and great team spirit. Wilf Gosnell and Luke Anderson joined by Matas Petreikis, Samuel Howard and Rhys Howard made up the U13 boys team.Gosnell achieved PBs in all his events, notably a big one in the four-lap with 58 seconds. Petreikis continued his winning streak with 2m20 in the long jump, followed by Anderson in fourth with 2m dead.Anderson was third in the two-lap with 23 seconds.Samuel was fifth in the vertical jump with 43cm while Rhys achieved PBs across the board and broke the 100-second barrier in the six-lap.In the U15s, athletes compete as individuals across a fixed six events throughout the three matches. Myley Gilboy finished 15th with her best score in the shot with 5.50, followed by speed bounce with 64 bounces in 30 seconds.Anya Faithhorn was fifth overall, with a huge long jump of 2.16 for second and also a PB in the shot of 6m78 for fifth.Aidan Howard was fourth overall in the boys’ contest, even after missing one of the events due to an injury.In the triple jump, he was third with 2.14 and second in the triple jump with 6.14.