Thetford Athletics Club’s under-15 boys team were the first squad from the town to make the East Anglian League Track and Field final for many years.

This success came hot on the heels of a tantalisingly close run thing 12 months ago when the majority of the same boys competed as U13s and missed out on a place in the final by the narrowest of margins.

Thetford AC, with additional representation from a handful of Dereham athletes, had a superb start to the day with a first place in the 80m hurdles ‘B-string’ race as Jake Stearman crossed the line in 14.6s. Callum Bowen-Jones managed a highly creditable second place in the A equivalent of the same event, running the race in 13.7s.

Aiden Try finished in third in the B Long Jump with a personal best jump of 4.19m whilst Nathan Protheroe leapt 4.94m to come fourth in the A equivalent. Harley Swan ran 2:21.6mins to finish fifth in the 800m A race whilst Charlie Stone took around seven seconds off his previous PB when clocking 2:19.6 to finish in second place in the B version of the same event. Harley Swan jumped a PB height of 1.45m to finish third in the high jump.

At the halfway point of the competition, these early successes amassed a huge points total which saw Thetford sitting in fourth place out of the eight teams taking part. Having qualified in the eighth and final slot in the run-up to this event, it was therefore an impressive showing to be sitting in mid-position as the team entered the afternoon competitions.

However, it appeared that Thetford’s best events had been held earlier in the day and whilst Thetford continued to win points as the day went on, the larger squads that some of the bigger clubs brought with them started to have a positive impact on their own performances as other teams started to overtake Thetford.

Both Aiden Try and Tom Mead recorded PBs in the triple jump with Try finishing seventh in the A competition, jumping 8.85m, whilst Mead came sixth with a jump of 7.98m in the B event.

Mead also threw a PB in the shot put competition as he finished fifth with a throw of 5.32m. Aiden Try ran 4.49mins to finish fourth in the 1500m B race whilst Jake Stearman crossed the line in a time of 4:46.6 to finish sixth in the A event.

Kian Statham ran a PB to finish eighth in the 100m with a time of 14.1s followed by another eighth place in the A 200m with a time of 28.2m.

Charlie Stone ran 28.0s to finish seventh in the 200m B race. Joseph Nicholson threw 22.46m to finish fifth in the discus followed by an eighth place throw of 21.65m in the javelin.

Thetford AC fielded just nine boys across all of the events, all of whom did the club proud.

The eventual result was a seventh place finish, ahead of Hunts AC. Colchester and Tendring AC went on to win the Under-15 Boys category with local rivals Ipswich Harriers second and City of Norwich AC in fifth place.