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Oct 03

Thetford Trio shine at Easterns

Thetford athletes took centre stage at the final major track and field championships of the season in Peterborough.
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Athletes from across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire gathered for the Eastern Counties Combined Events Championships which pits the best young athletes against one another in a series of events on both track and field. Each competitor must take part in a series of different disciplines with many of those taking part aiming to be future heptathletes or decathletes.

Thetford were represented by two Under 13 athletes, Asha Soanes and Cameron Try with both coming away from the championships with two gold medals each. In the girls event, Asha Soanes competed in a three disciplines. Soanes leapt to victory in her first event, the Long Jump, with a personal best jump of 4.49m. Soanes then kept the personal bests and the victories coming with first place in the Shot Putt after a throw of 8.03m. This positive start to the competition meant that Soanes could afford to enter her final race, the 800m, knowing that she did not need to win, provided she could remain close to her nearest rival Martha Bennett from the City of Norwich. Soanes did just that, finishing the 800m in a time of 2:44.96, within four seconds of Bennett, ensuring that she secured both the gold medal in the Eastern County Championships along with the gold medal for the Norfolk Combined Event Championships.

Cameron Try’s competition started more slowly with a sixth place finish in his first event, the Long Jump where his managed a leap of 3.82m. However, Try took the competition apart during his second event, the Discus, which he won comfortably with a throw of 23.19m. The distance he secured between himself and his competitors in this event not only gained him enough points to close the gap after his long jump, but also took Try into the lead going into his final event, the 100m sprint. Try won the 100m race in a time of 14.50 seconds. Cameron Try also secured a double gold medal as both the Eastern Counties and Norfolk champion.

U17 competitors had an extra two events to tackle, with 5 disciplines in total counting towards their final result. Thetford’s sole representative, Aiden Try, began the competition with his two weakest events, the long jump and javelin. Try finished last in both events, jumping 4.97m and throwing 23.46m. After this slow start, Aiden Try picked up the tempo with a 3rd place finish in the 200m sprint, running a personal best time of 25.19m. Try then finished 5th in his first competitive outing throwing the Discus with a distance of 21.33m. Try had a lot to do to make the medals with just the 1500m left. However, after taking out the race from the front, an impressive run of 4:35.86 see Try finish in first place, around 40 seconds ahead of the eventual combined events winner, Kit Kerr, of Stevenage AC. This barnstorming finish to the competition and significant points total earned in the 1500m see Aiden Try take away the Silver medal in the Eastern County Championships although he finished with the Gold medal as first Norfolk athlete.

Thetford AC Chairman, Mick Johnson, was at Peterborough to witness the trios success and said that the Thetford youngsters, “performed extremely well on a busy day for them all and took away a good share of the medals in comparison to the number representing the Club at the event.”