SOUTHEND AC’s under-13 girls duo Shona Gonese and Felicity Galbally were the stars of the show as the Seasiders hosted their Eastern Young Athletes League meeting on Sunday.

Star sprinter Gonese completed an A-string 100m and 200m double, clocking 14.2s and 28.8s, while she was only beaten by one-hundreth of a second in the 70m hurdles.

Middle-distance talent Galbally stormed to victory in the 800m, clocking an impressive 2m 38.6s. Proving she’s not just an endurance athlete, Galbally went on to win the long jump with a leap of 4.19m.

It was a one-two in the under-13 girls long jump as Katie Judd went out to 3.89m to win the B-string.

The under-13 girls had the most success on the day with Evie Anderson getting their fourth A-string win in the discus (16.83m) with Grace Ralston winning the B-string (15.31m) to make it a discus double.

Elsewhere, Southend’s team was a bit depleted though for the first time in a while their under-13 boys managed to turn out two relay teams.

Several new signings showed early good form and promise especially Matthew Norris and Oscar Waller in the 300m (43.8s and 46.0s).

In the under-15 boys, Toby Wright looked good in winning the 1,500m in 4m 46.0s, while the Seasiders also had middle-distance A-string wins from Adam Jordan (U17 800m 2m 13.8s) and Lucy Kidwell (2m 30.1s). Natasha May won the B-string under-17 women’s 800m in 2m 31.4s.

Southend finished third overall in the meeting while Benfleet RC who were also at Garon Park finished seventh.

Their star performer was Victoria Hiscock who cruised to victory in the under-17 women’s 1,500m in a time of 5m 6.4s.

Hiscock’s Southend High School for Girls team-mate Michelle Hughes won the under-17 women’s 300m (42.4s) and shot-putt (9.94m) for her club Havering.

RUNCIMAN BREAKS CLUB HAMMER RECORD

SWEYNE Park School youngster Laura Runciman broke the Chelmsford AC under-15 hammer record at her club’s Eastern Young Athletes League meeting in Peterborough.

Runicman threw 36.85m, beating the record of training partner and FitzWimarc School youngster Gabby Qugley who had held the record for just a month.

Other south Essex athletes with A-string wins competing for Chelmsford in Peterborough included Connie Forman who won the under-15 girls long jump and Rosa Prideaux whose fine early season form continued as she won the 800m and was second in the 200m.

Basildon AC’s youngsters had to travel to Ipswich for their EYAL meeting but unfortunately the individual results from that meeting had not been published by the time the Echo went to press.
Basildon finished third in the meeting, one spot ahead of south Essex rivals Thurrock.