Downham Market Ryston Runners’ Cath Duhig takes Euro Masters silver in Italy

The majority of Ryston’s road runners were waiting for next weekend’s Round Norfolk Relay, or taking part in the anniversary celebration of King’s Lynn Parkrun which took the form of a 24-hour run around The Walks.

A sea of Ryston Runners vests dominated the first two hours, and many members stayed on to take part in several more hours of fun in support of this popular event.

In Italy, two club members took part in the first week of the European Masters Athletics Championships.

Both being at the top of their age groups, they were competing against significantly younger athletes, in Masters terms, and acquitted themselves well.

Cath Duhig competed in the W60 category just six weeks shy of her 65th birthday.

She completed her event, the 5000m racewalk, in a season’s best time of 30:36.63, in silver medal position, so was quite pleased, especially as she convincingly overhauled the first W65, against whom she will be competing next time they meet at this level.

Gaye Clarke, in her last year as W55, took on the heptathlon over two days, the second of which saw thunderstorms raging and several other events had to be abandoned or postponed due to flooding.

Second place in the 80m hurdles (14.8), thirds in the 200m (33.07) and long jump (3m 73), sixth in javelin (15m 66) and a fourth in high jump (1m27 – below par but amazing in the conditions) gave her a strong base from which to challenge for a medal.

But a seventh place in the shot putt, always her weakest event, saw her chances slipping away, and it is not surprising that she opted for a cautious 800m, for sixth in 3:36.02 to close her campaign, which saw her finish in fourth overall with 4,207 points.

Meanwhile, Lucy Oakley, who has had such an amazing season, placed fifth in the Shot Putt with 10m 65 in the South of England U15 championships at Lee Valley.

Jon Ashford creditably finished the Great North Run on Sunday as the 3rd M50-54 in 1:17:04.

On Sunday seven U15B boys from Ryston competed in the East Anglian League finals in Bury St Edmunds. They qualified through their performances in the league matches over the season.

The boys worked hard to earn their place in the final, where they came fourth out of eight teams.

Jay Liczbinski won the B string hurdles, second in high jump with 1.65m, and threw 18.46m in discus.

Liam Clare finished fifth in the A string hurdles and 4th in the 100m, finishing in a time of 12.3s. He also threw just over 8m in shot, not near his best.

Kieran Bell was on good form, managing 4.84m in long jump and 10.69m in triple jump for third place. He also ran in the 200m. David MacQueen bagged a long jump personal best (PB) of 5.38m and ran into third in the 100m in 13s. He also ran in the 300m in a time of 44s.

Miles Hovell completed a hat-trick of throws with javelin 20.03m, discus 22.16m and shot, over 8m. Ryan Wood ran well in the 300m, 46.8s (PB), and 200m and threw 24.76m in the javelin for third. Harry Wakefield finished his 1500m run strongly in 4.55.3.