Hornsby's a record-breaker in battling Nene Valley display

Jess Varley was in superb form for Peterborough AC.

The city club travelled to Basingstoke on Saturday for their latest fixture with a team heavily depleted by exams and injuries yet turned in a battling display to finish second - missing out by just nine points on top spot.

Several athletes were prepared to ‘muck in’ and fill gaps and the excellent team spirit displayed on the day keeps Harriers in the title hunt.

Harriers best results came from the throwers.

Maximum points were banked in three of the ladies events thanks to the efforts of Andrea Jenkins (A string discus and hammer), Becki Hall (A string shot and B string discus) and Lydia Church (B string shot and hammer).

Martin Tinkler led the way for the men, recording A string wins in the shot and discus, equalling his personal best (PB) in the latter with a throw of 42.50m. He also set a new best in the hammer with his second place throw of 34.81m.

Simon Achurch competed in four events, throwing everything he could find, and newcomer Grigorij Kondratovic also scored well in the throws.

Emma Hornsby and Jasmine Allen gained maximum points in the long jump. Hornsby was the A string winner with a new club record of 5.66m and Allen’s winning B string leap of 5.36m was an English Schools qualifier.

On the track there was a winning double in the men’s 400m with Ashley Sandall the A race winner in 49.75 and Dave Brown the B race victor in 51.20.

Other Nene Valley winners were: Sean Reidy (400m hurdles A), Lewis Cunningham (triple jump B), Simon Achurch (shot B), Chloe Pavey (1500m B) and Devon Spencer (triple jump B).

Peterborough Athletic Club also had plenty to celebrate when they visited Lee Valley and finished a close third in their latest Division Three North fixture.

Ellie Forrest picked up a hat-trick of wins - in the A string shot (9.93m) and B string 100m hurdles (18.49) and high jump (1.45m) - and two of them (shot and hurdles) were with personal best performances.

Jessica Varley was in dominant form on the track. She smashed the opposition in the 800m to win the A race in a season’s best 2.26.86 and then did the same again in the 5,000m to win the A race in a new PB of 20.16.16.

Nichola Gibson (200m B and 400m A), James Whitehead (1500m A and 3000m B), Sam Eve Marsh (100m hurdles A and 400m hurdles A) and Lewis Davey (200m A and long jump B) were all double winners and Whitehead clocked PBs of 4.40.41 and 9.54.41 in both his races.

Davey also ran a PB of 24.69 when winning his 200m race.

Joel Grenfell and Holly Brown were both convincing A string winners.

Grenfell produced a new PB of 7.13m to win the A string long jump while Brown finished well over a metre clear of the opposition when taking the A string pole vault honours with 3.30m.

Other PAC winners were: Brandon Howell (200m B), Amittai Ben-Israel (800m A), Joel Reed (1500m B), Steve Robinson (3000m A), Ella De Lucis (high jump A) and Stacey McGivern (shot B).

De Lucis cleared a new best of 1.50m.