Several athletes from Thetford Athletics Club joined forces with athletes from the City of Norwich Athletics Club after being selected to represent Team Norfolk in this season’s UK Youth Development League Southern Premier Two Division.

The primary aim for this season for Team Norfolk is to gain promotion after suffering relegation from the Southern Premier One Division the previous season. Promotion back to that league would ensure that next year, the county’s best young athletes would be competing against some of England’s best clubs with Blackheath and Bromley, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and Enfield and Haringey AC regular participants at that level.

This season’s competition in Southern Premier Two Division consists of Team Dorset, Chelmsford, Stevenage, Crawley and Harrow. Team Norfolk couldn’t have got off to a better start, running out comfortable winners of this first league meeting of the season, in Harrow.

Under-17 Harley Swan ran a personal best in the 400m where he ran to second place in the B-string race in a time of 56.7 seconds. Swan then went on to finish fifth in the A-string 800m race with a time of 2:11.2mins.

Aiden Try finished second in the A-string 1500m race with a PB of 4:25.5 whilst Try then ran into third place in the B-string 800m with a time of 2:14.5. Joseph Nicholson threw a PB of 46.13m on his way to winning the hammer competition. Nicholson also had two fifth-place finishes in the shot put where he threw 7.99m and the discus where he threw 24.32m.

Jordan Turner won the U20 B-string discus competition with a season’s best throw of 19.55m. It was a second-place finish in the shot put with a PB of 5.41m whilst Turner finished off with another PB in the hammer with a distance of 36.65m for second position.

Mia Browne had an exceptional day with two victories and a second-place finish in her three events. Browne won the shot put with a PB of 7.73m. Her discus throw of 23.13m was good enough for first place. It was a second-place finish in the hammer with a throw of 36.30m.

Team Norfolk lead the way after their strong start in the first round of the Youth Development League, with a massive 100-plus point difference between them and second placed Crawley AC.