Norfolk athletes performed outstandingly well in the East Anglian Schools Combined Events match at Sportspark in Norwich as they competed against the best of seven counties, writes Brendon Byrne.

Competing in the under 17 girls heptathlon, Isabelle Mardle, led throughout and clocked up 5,052 points in two days of gruelling competition. Her best individual performance came in her specialist event, the 80m hurdles, where she was timed at an outstanding 11.6 seconds. Her javelin throw of 38.61m was pretty good as well.

In the senior boys decathlon Conrad Winter, back to competition after injury, managed 6,171 points in the 10 events. This was for a clear victory over the second athlete to finish. His best individual event came in the long jump with a fine distance of 6.92m.

Another fine win for a Norfolk athlete came from Hannah Paine in the under 20 girls heptathlon. She made sure of the win over an Essex competitor with a front running win in the final 800m event. Asha Soanes, a Norfolk athlete but at school in Suffolk. finished third.

Ethan Ellis just missed out on first place in the under 17 boys Octathlon with a promising 4,632 points. His best individual events included a 1.77m high jump and a very good 6.41m long jump.

The best Norfolk performance in the under 15 girls pentathlon came from Mia Squires in fourth place with 2,744 points. Another newcomer, William Lupton was fourth in the junior boys pentathlon behind a very strong Essex contingent.

Norfolk’s athletes will next be in action at the English Schools Championships at Sportcity in Manchester next week.

Sophie McKinna (Great Yarmouth) finished second in the shot at the British Championships in Manchester with a throw of 17.49m. This was a season’s best for her ahead of the Commonwealth Games next month.

Megan Gadsby (City of Norwich) continued to improve when she finished a fine fourth place at the British under 20 championships. She finished in a personal best time 9:42.4 seconds in the 3,000m.