We were thrilled to hear about the success of new Lower Sixth athlete Alyssa Firla, who represented Great Britain for the first time at an event with her club, the Blackheath and Bromley Harriers.
The event, held in Rome, was the 2023 Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) U20 Clash of Clubs and consists of 2.5 hours with mixed gender teams competing in a fast-paced sequence of events. The last event, a staggered relay called the Hunt, determines the winning team. The team came 8th overall in Europe, which is a fantastic achievement as many of the team were U17, competing against U20 athletes.
Alyssa describes her experience: “I’ve been part of Blackheath and Bromley since I moved to the UK back in 2018 but I’ve been doing athletics for as long as I can remember. This was my first time representing GB so it was very exciting, and I hope to do it all again in the near future.
“The competition comprised of 12 teams from countries all over Europe, they were spilt into two groups for the first day, the top 3 teams from each group then qualified for the A final. To qualify for the final the team had to come top 3 in the Hunt, which was a relay made of the 600m, 400m, 200m and 800m. The events throughout the day score points which gave us a head start in the Hunt. Unfortunately, despite being ahead 12 points with a 4 second head start, we came 4th in the Hunt so only made it to the B final for the second day.
“My mixed (2 boys, 2 girls) 4×400 relay team won the first day by 4 seconds, which we were very proud of. Unfortunately, one of our teammates got sent to hospital overnight so we ran the best we could with our new team for the next day but unluckily came second to Ireland despite running 2 seconds faster than them the previous day (3.36.30). Regardless, my team ran very well, and I couldn’t be happier with our and my own performance.
“I can’t wait for sports day at Trinity because I love watching other people get involved in and enjoy athletics the way I do!”
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