Marty Dent has been in cracking track form, winning the 3000m steeplechase at the Australian Championships at Brisbane in 8:27.00 and beating Kosgei, Nowill and Youcef in the process.  Other performances have included a 13:41.78 5000m and a 3:44.94 1500m.

But Marty's latest exploit was to place 4th in the Australian World Cross Trial at Stromlo Forest Park, Canberra on 8 March.  The 12k race was won by Collis Birmingham in 36:25 with Marty just 13 seconds behind.  Only the first two were automatic selections but with a group of runners packing in closely, the selectors decided to fill out a full team and Marty received confirmation of his selection early this week.  We believe it will be his seventh World Cross.

Globe trotting John Kimaiyo raced the Sichon Hospital Half Marathon in Thailand on Sunday 9 March. The race started at 5am due to the oppressive humidity - but early or late, it's all the same to John who won in 1:08:22.

He's now preparing for the Kualar Lumpur Half Marathon on 30 March before returning to Kenya.

Eighteen Belgravians have been invited to take part this coming weekend in the trials for the Indoor World Championships which doubles as the UK Championships. First past the post earns the right to compete in Valencia, 7-9 March, in the 12th IAAF World Champs., with others to be selected at the discretion of UKA.

Not all will take their place on the start line - but it should be a very interesting weekend.

Men

60m - Wade Bennett-Jackson, Dwain Chambers

200m - Jason Hussain

400m - Ryan Thomas

800m - Graeme Oudney

1500m - Tim Bayley, Shaun Moralee, Richard Ward

3000m - Jonathan Blackledge, Stephen Sharp

60m Hurdles - Louis Evling-Jones, William Sharman

High Jump - Samson Oni, Darvin Edwards (St. Lucia)

Long Jump - Louis Evling-Jones, Bernard Yeboah

Triple Jump - Phillips Idowu

Shot - Scot Thompson

Women

1500m - Catherine Bryson

Belgrave's high jumping duo of Samson Oni and Darvin Edwards are enjoying a productive winter with coach Trevor Llewellyn.  Last week Darvin won the SEAA Indoor title at Lee Valley in 2.20m with Samson clearing the same height but pushed back to equal 2nd on countback.

Seven days later at Brunel's Indoor Jumps Meet in West London, Darvin went even higher, setting a new St. Lucian national record of 2.25m before retiring from the competition on the advice of Trevor. Samson was again second in 2.20m but watch out for fireworks when the big events come around, for he was ranked number one in the UK in 2007 with a best of 2.28m.

Hopefully both will be in action in the Birmingham Games next weekend and at the World Indoor trials the weekend following.

There is a possibility of pre-season training for Darvin, Samson and Trevor in St Lucia at the end of March/beginning of April. We hear that the St. Lucian Athletics authorities are keen accommodate them and are open to exploring ways in which to subsidise visitors in return for athletics clinics/master classes to St Lucian schools/aspiring athletes.

We're pleased to hear that after a foot infection curtailed his activities before Christmas, Jonathan Blackledge raced last weekend in the Romsey 5 Mile Road Race and won with 24:28.

He was not sure how things would go, having not donned his racing shoes for a while, but it turned out well. The standard was pretty good with Woodford Green's Simon Plummer also running, and the result was that JB had a serious test to help him gauge his fitness. He took the lead from halfway and pushed on hard in the final km to open out a lead of 18 seconds.

Next up for Jonathan is the BUSA Cross Country Championships at the weekend before turning his attention to the indoor scene for the AAA Championships and then the Armagh 5k Road Race.

In an epic darts competition between Thames Hare & Hounds and Belgrave Harriers on Saturday night at Belgrave Hall, it all came down to the final "1001 down - all in" match to decide the destination of The Flyder Cup ...

Belgrave took an early lead - up to 4-1 ... Thames came back, simultaneous matches finishing within seconds with our rivals clocking out on doubles to hoots of delight ... and it was 6-6. Nip and tuck then through the doubles until at 9-9 it was down to the final game. Now it was Thames making the pace right until the home straight only to be denied when a final Belgrave flourish took the home club ahead just before the tape with Knut Hegvold's killer "dip" being a double 11 check-out.

It was a great evening and one well worth repeating. Many thanks to Will for getting it off the ground - to Pat for rustling up a score or more helpings of home made lasagne and chilli con carne, and to Maureen and Brian for providing the baked potatoes.

And of course many thanks to our guests Thames Hare & Hounds for rising to the challenge.  We've no doubt that Larry Mathews is even now organising training sessions with a view to Thames lifting the Flyder in 2009.

RESULTS
Singles
Belgrave		Thames
Snowy Brooks	lost to	Simon Molden
Knut Hegvold	beat	Darren Talbot
Dave McMillan	beat	Megan Clark
Mark Pollard	beat	Dave Symons
Hazel Mead	beat	Dorchie Cockerell
Alan Mead	lost to	Larry Mathews
Maureen Pritchard	beat	Andy Weir
Brian Pritchard	lost to	Nick Gould
John Martin	lost to	James McMullen
Pete Willis	beat	Nick Altmann
Simon Jones	lost to	Alun Johns
Cynthia James	lost to	Allison Carpenter
Score 6-6
Doubles
Matt Whiting & Will Cockerell	lost to	Darren Talbot & James McMullen
Alan Mead & Anne Hegvold	beat	Simon Molden & Megan Clark
Dave McMillan & John Martin	beat	Dorchie Cockerell & Alun Johns
Maureen Pritchard & Mark Pollard	beat	Nick Gould & Nick Altmann
Brian Pritchard & Pete Willis	lost to	Alison Carpenter & Larry Mathews
Simon Jones & Hazel Mead	lost to	Andy Weir & Dave Symons
Score 3-3
1001 Finale – everyone throws
Belgrave	beat	Thames

MVP’S (Most valuable players):

Of the 27 players on parade, six managed to win two matches:

Belgrave’s double victors were - Mark Pollard, Maureen Pritchard & Dave McMillan.

Thames’s double victors were - James McMullen, Allison Carpenter, Larry Mathews

The news bulletins bring us terrible pictures from Kenya where political and now tribal differences have resulted in escalating violence and bloodshed. It is brought home to us, as runners, when we hear that some of the most brutal fighting has taken place in Eldoret, the home of so many of Kenya's world beating distance runners. Lucas Sang, a member of Kenya's 4x400m team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, was hacked to death and his body burnt by a rampaging mob, while Luke Kibet who won the Marathon at last year’s 11th World Athletics Championships in Osaka is lucky to be alive after being attacked by the same machete wielding gang.

While the latest terrors were being reported last night on TV we received the following heart rending SMS message from our friend of the last year or so:

"Hi Alan and your family, it is me John Kimaiyo in Kenya. We really need your prayers. Kenya in war after wrong election. I lost my cousin brother Luka Sang ... Pray for us."

What can we do but hope and pray that talks between the opposing forces will result in things returning to normal, thus sparing John and all the other ordinary citizens of Kenya.   

Welsh Athletics have just named three coaches who have been tasked with developing talent over the years ahead. Top scalp is that of Bengt-Eric Blomkvist the Swedish national coach renowned for overseeing the world class performances of Sweden’s Susanne and Jenny Kallur. Backing him will be Past Belgrave top athletes Darryl Maynard (middle distance) and Nigel Bevan (throws).

Darryl Maynard competed 26 times in BAL matches for Belgrave accumulating 275 points in the process to put him in 21st spot on our all-time rankings. He competed in the 400, 800, occasional 1500 and the long relays and his last BAL outing for Belgrave was on July 5th 1997 at Solihull where in a Div 1 match he ran 48.2 for the 400 and was part of a long relay squad which comprised also Noel Levy, Chris Rawlinson and Phil Goedluck. Darryl was one of the team's big extrovert characters and his exploits are still remembered with amusement by the team management.

Nigel Bevan also competed in 26 BAL matches for Belgrave and was a contemporary of Darryl. His javelin prowess was legendary and with a best of 81.70m in 1992 he ranked among the best in the world, thwarted only by the incredible presence of Backley and Hill in their world best prime. Nonetheless Nigel finished 4th in the World Student Games and represented Wales in the Vancouver Commonwealth Games. Nigel accumulated 361 points in BAL for Belgrave and still ranks 13th on the list of all time greats. His last match in Belgrave colours was at Kingsmeadow on 17th August 1996 where he finished 3rd with 70.88m.

We wish both Darryl and Nigel all success in their new appointments based in Cardiff.

News from New Zealand is that our old harrier chum Paul Coughlan and wife Bronwyn are expecting a third child. Coggie is also keen to track down one time Belgravian Ray Foley.  We know that Ray headed for Yorkshire and heard that he was going to join Leeds City - has anyone heard from him lately.

European indoor triple jump champion Phillips Idowu declared himself to be in the best form of his career after he bettered his own South of England Indoor Championships record by 58 centimetres on Sunday.

Competing at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre that has been his training base since he recovered from a back injury that restricted him to sixth place at last summer's World Championships, Idowu opened with a leap of 16.96metres, adding 48cms to the record he set 12 months ago.

He improved to 17.06m, had two marginal fouls that would have added another 30cm and said: "I don't think I have ever felt this good ever. The stuff I have been doing in training is the best work I have done.

"I was a little bit nervous last night because you never know how the first competition will go. Now I know I can jump 17m easily.

"Consistently I was hopping and stepping 12 metres. I usually don't get close to that before the summer."

The 29-year-old will now plan a competitive winter programme with coach John Herbert and refuses to commit himself to competing at the World Indoors in Valencia in March.

BT Yahoo