www.belgraveharriers.com

Home  Track & Field Results Index  Pictures

Reports: Final by Bill Laws, Semi  by Rex Bale and Alan Mead

Men's and Women's Golden Jubilee Cup - 2003 

Golden Jubilee Cup Final, Bedford, 16 August 2003.

Close!  But Belgrave win Cup Final again

1 Belgrave 218; 2 Sale H Manchester 204; 3 Woodford Green with Essex Ladies 193; 4 Birchfield H 191; 5 Shaftesbury B 174; 6 Trafford AC 152; 7 Windsor SE&H 149; 8 Team Solent 104.

As surprise winners of the inaugural Jubilee Cup for combined men's and women's track and field teams in 2002 we knew the opposition would be seeking to prevent a repeat Belgrave victory. With Birchfield fielding a strong men's team and Sale's women looking particularly threatening it was going to take the united efforts of our men and women to retain the trophy. With many of our stars unable to attend it would be down to everyone to put in top performances. And so it turned out as a relatively weak start left us trailing the likes of Birchfield, Sale and Woodford Green.

Mick Jones, only just back from adventures in Canada, was in the land of nod when he should have been reporting for the hammer. Fortunately Kevin Brown stepped in but his single point was lost in the discus where injury relegated him to fourth spot. At the same time junior Roy Collier was trying to tame a huge stadium pole as he equalled his pb in the pole vault - all this because his Belgrave pole had gone missing from our home track. With both our main jumpers injured Roy answered a late call up and seemed to enjoy competing at this level. Another late call up was Kassa Tadesse who despite lack of fitness finished an excellent second in the 10000m to signal the start of a team comeback which eventually would see us again victorious.

And the women were exceeding expectations too. Diana Holden threw a season's best to finish fourth in the hammer (one better than last year) and then managed a sixth place in the discus. Meanwhile Michelle Nestor squeezed a fifth spot in a closely contested long jump while Maureen Knight occupied the same spot in the high jump as she embarked on a busy afternoon schedule. But we needed better placings to move up the scorecard. The ever reliable Matt Douglas stormed to our first win in the 400 hurdles only to be yet again frustrated as the electric timing failed during the first track race. Then second for Chris Moss in an 800 which he seemed to have won but somehow his nemesis Matt Shone dipped him on the line. Graham Beasley then got another silver in the 100m to be followed by a win from Sean Baldock in the flat 400. Third in that race was a lacklustre Du'aine Ladejo but that was no surprise as Sean dipped under 46secs for the second time this season. Only two tenths outside the all time Cup record (Ewan Thomas in 2001 at the Gold Cup) Sean is coming into top form before the World Champs in Paris. At about this time Ben Challenger was unlucky not to clear 2.25 in the high jump and had to settle for a first place tie with the evergreen Dalton Grant. And on the far side of the stadium Lucy Webber, recovering from a broken finger, battled for a valuable silver in the pole vault. In the triple jump Caroline Stead gained bronze for more valuable points.

Kevin Nash was down to move house (yes again!) but delayed it for a day. It is so pleasing to think that Kevin is now one of our bankers for max points following his big breakthrough and pb at the AAA's champs. And he didn't disappoint. Neither too did Graham Beasley who ran a 200m pb into a headwind to soundly beat Birchfield's 400m star Daniel Caines. Not to be outdone Amy Spencer won the women's 200m and to prove she is over her injury problems ran close to a season's best. And then Stephen Sharp gave us more of the same, beating the talented Woodford junior Chris Reynolds in a sprint for the line to make the 1500m another exciting and closely contested race. What a feast of high quality competition we were watching.

Meanwhile in the javelin Stuart Faben struggled following his suspected broken ankle scare but in the shot Greg Beard once again improved his pb to gain silver and more points. Silver too for Will Cockerell in the 5000. Will has competed in this race for the last 3 year's - finishing fourth, third and now second. Will is predicting a win next year and it would be foolhardy not to take that seriously! So with the relays to go Belgrave had moved into a small lead over Sale and Birchfield. The next four races would decide the winners. First the women's sprint relay was won by Sale but closely followed by the Belgrave squad. Then the men's sprint relay in which the baton was dropped at the first changeover. No names, no pack drill but Laurence was desolated!. Fortunately Sale were also disqualified so no damage. Then to the women's long relay in which the Belgrave squad pipped Sale thanks to a resounding second leg by Michelle Carey timed in the low 53's. Michelle is Korea bound for the World Student Games (along with Matt Douglas) and could be a medal contender in the 400H (along with Matt Douglas). And so to the last event the men's long relay with the trophy ours. Birchfield were out to salvage some pride and with Daniel Caines, Du'aine Ladejo and Bradley Yiend got within 0.05 of the Cup record. But Matt Douglas, Dan Donovan, Chris Moss and Sean Baldock got the silver and we were home and dry.

John Jeffery says he only smiles at the big matches when we are certain to lose. There were one or two grimaces early on but nothing to worry about. Great match!!!

Men.

100m: 2 G.Beasley 10.59/-1.0. 200m: 1 G.Beasley 20.77/-0.5. 400m: 1 S.Baldock 45.99. 2 C.Moss 1:49.29. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:52.48. 5000m: 2 W.Cockerell 15:13.19. 10000m: 2 K.Tadesse 31:05.91. 110mH: 2 M.Wedge 15.24/-2.0. 400mH: 1 M.Douglas 49.8. 3000mSC: 1 K.Nash 8:59.86. 4x100m: dq Belgrave. 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 3:12.52 (M.Douglas, D.Donovan, C.Moss, S.Baldock). HJ: =1 B.Challenger 2.20. LJ: 2 D.O'Farrell 7.01/2.0. TJ: 3 S.Majekodunmi 14.54w/2.7. PV: 7 R.Collier U17 2.80. SP: 2 G.Beard 17.53. DT: 4 K.Brown 49.35. JT: 5 S.Faben 61.78. HT: 8 K.Brown 32.16.

Women.

100m: 4 A.Onuora U20 12.47/-2.4. 200m: 1 A.Spencer U20 23.65. 400m: 7 H.Stares 58.67. 800m: 5 J.Mitchell 2:13.45. 1500m: 5 J.Mitchell 4:37.76. 3000m: 5 R.Powell U20 10:38.04. 100mH: 5 H.Stares 14.91/-2.3. 400mH: 2 J.Culley 59.29. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 47.10 (A.Onuora U20, J.Culley, C.Wilson U20, A.Spencer). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:44.42 (C.Wilson U20 59.7, M.Carey 53.8, H.Stares 56.2, J.Culley 54.8). HJ: 5 M.Knight 1.60. LJ: 5 M.Nestor U20 4.90/1.7. TJ: 3 C.Stead 12.34/2.0. PV: 2 L.Webber 3.40. SP: 5 E.Massey 13.51. DT: 6 D.Holden 30.53. JT: 6 M.Knight 38.07. HT: 4 D.Holden 51.44.

Golden Jubilee Cup Semi-Final, Bedford, 19 July 2003.

1 Belgrave 313; 2 Thames Valley H 207; 3 Harrow 159.5; 4 Channel Islands 146.5; 5 Crawley 140; 6 Swansea 130; 7 Havering Mayesbrook 128; 8 Woking 126.

Can you imagine a major club event without the presence of the irrepressible Maria Sharp?

Maria placed 3rd in the 800m.

More pictures. 

A dominating performance and Belgrave enter the Cup Final as favourites

A third of the way into this match and it was not so much a question of ‘would we win’ but whether or not the men would ‘outpoint’ the women!  In reporting this match it is a case of ‘assume first place unless otherwise stated’.  The immense strength and depth of the team resulted in a final points total of 313 out of a possible 342, or to put in another way, a pass with distinction of 92%.  The men who have 20 events compared with the women’s 18 scored 163 points out of a possible 180 (90.6%) and the women collected 150 out of a possible 162 (92.6%). However, Stuart Faben’s desperately bad luck resulted in the men not turning out anyone for the javelin and instead of a certain 9 points (which would have made the men 95.6%) we scored nil.

Poor Stuart had stepped on a casually discarded bottle left lying on the track in the indoor warm-up area.  He badly turned his ankle and was taken to hospital. At first it was thought that he might have a fracture but we later learned that the ligaments were damaged.  The AAA the following week are sure to be out of the question now – but Stuart is being positive and is hoping to get back to throwing for the later league matches.

The track events started with the men’s 10,000 metres and Hassan Raidi, in his first ever stab at the distance within the confines of a stadium, gave us maximum points.  Meanwhile, over at the long jump, Darragh O’Farrell performed right up to form to win with 7.26m.

A highly motivated (when is she anything but?) Amala Onuora prepared for her trip to Paris for the ‘Youth Olympics’ the following weekend by clocking 12.0 seconds in the 100m and she later anchored the winning 4 x 100m relay team.  Just as Amala dominated the women’s sprint, so too did Graham Beasley for the men and with seven or eight events gone we had yet to witness a competition that did not feature a claret and gold clad athlete at the head of the field. Julie Hollman was not best pleased with her long jump but delighted with her 1.81m high jump – a season’s best – however, they were both wins.  Our triple jumpers excelled with a longest ever leap from David Wellstead and a best since ’96 from Caroline Stead – both aided by the stiff breeze.  Double wins also came from vaulters Paul Williams and Lucy Webber – although Lucy had to share first place with a rival.

It couldn’t last, of course, and the irrepressible Maria Sharp was the unlucky person to find herself “only” in third when she tackled the 800m.  She then spent the next half an hour hoping that she wouldn’t be the only one to miss out on a win!  Kevin Nash gave her hope as he ignored the pace of an early leader in the steeplechase and seemed destined for 2nd. However, Kev knew exactly what he was doing (and that the early leader had over-reached himself) and he too was soon continuing the winning spree.  Maria was put out of her suffering eventually by a kindly Matt Wedge – who obliged her by also placing third in the sprint hurdles.

Diane Holden, although not breaching the 50 metres barrier on this occasion, won the hammer and believes that a solid winter’s training, which she lacked last year, will allow her to step up a gear. Shelley Newman in the outside throwing area did not seem to be distracted by the regular passage of cars behind the cage on the way to the overflow car park.  Her third effort of 55.42 metres was her best.  And while the women scored heavily in the throws, so too did the newly blond Mick Jones for the men.  One of the happiest souls in the team was Greg Beard whose 16.17m in the shot heralded a return to form in a big way.  Greg also placed second in the discus. Shot putter Eva Massey whose training is going really well was slightly disappointed with her 15.71m although it was not far short of her season’s best.  Maureen Knight placed second in the javelin where she deputised for Goldie Sayers, on Under-23 international duty in Poland.

What a welcome sight it was to see Chris Moss back on the track after his knee injury.  He’s missed a lot of conditioning work but was always in control of the 800 metres.  Another forcing his way back into the action was one-lapper Geoff Dearman, winning the non scoring 200m before later setting the long relay boys off on another maximum pointer. In the scoring 200m the powerful Laurence Oboh defied anyone to pass him in a tight race and Jennifer Culley also found some tough competition in the women’s event where she placed third. Jennifer later ran an unpressed anchor leg split of 56.7 seconds which helped the team to their best time of the season (3:51.2) and had earlier taken the 400 hurdles in 63.3 – a busy afternoon.  Rachel King, who has been running brilliantly this year, was a class apart in the sprint hurdles where she won with 13.4 seconds as the second placed runner was still attacking the final flight of barriers;  she was unlucky that electric timing was not being used for she would surely have clipped the stadium record.  It was Hannah Stares’ turn to take a break from the hurdles, switching to the flat 400m where she won in 55.9 –  and after her legs had stopped hurting she did it all again in the relay.  Sean Baldock was able to run a couple of seconds below par to sew up the men’s race.

In the longer distances the hot and breezy conditions made pace judgment difficult but Rosalie Powell coped well in the 3000m to remove nearly a quarter of a minute from her previous best.  Julie Mitchell showed her usual front running approach in the combined Match 1 and 2 1500m; although she was outpaced in the last lap to cross the line in third, Julie was a clear Match 1 winner. Steve Sharp was masterful in the men’s 1500m while Allen Graffin threw in a 64 second lap towards the end of the 5000 to ensure that he was alone for the final circuit.

Men

100m: 1 G.Beasley 10.6/1.5. 200m: 1 L.Oboh U20 21.8. 400m: 1 Sean Baldock 47.4. 800m: 1 C.Moss 1:55.1. 1500m: 1 S.Sharp 3:51.0. 5000m: 1 Allen Graffin 14:58.9. 10000m: 1 H.Raidi 32:23.5; 110mH: 3 M.Wedge 15.3. 400mH: 1 M.Douglas 50.2. 3000mSC: 1 K.Nash 9:02.7. HJ: 1 R.Aspden 2.05. LJ: 1 D.O'Farrell. 7.26. TJ: 1 D.Wellstead 14.61w/2.4. PV: 1 P.Williamson 5.00. SP: 1 G.Beard 16.17. DT: 2 G.Beard 44.31. JT: no Belgrave competitor. HT: 1 M.Jones 67.97. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave 42.7 (L.Oboh U20, D.Donovan, M.Wedge, S.Baldock). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:17.6 (G.Dearman 48.2, C.Moss 49.5, S.Osho U17 49.0, M.Douglas 50.9).

Women

100m: 1 A.Onuora U20 12.0 (1.6). 200m: 3 J.Culley 25.0. 400m: 1 H.Stares 55.8. 800m: 3 M.Sharp 2:15.6. 1500m: 1 J.Mitchell 4:31.2. 3000m:3 R.Powell U20 10:30.3. 100mH: 1 R.King 13.4. 400mH: 1 J.Culley 63.3. HJ: 1 J.Hollman 1.81. LJ: 1 J.Hollman 5.96. TJ: 1 C.Stead 12.48w/4.8. PV: =1 L.Webber 3.50. SP: 1 E.Massey 15.71. DT: 1 S.Newman 55.42. JT: 2 M.Knight 35.06. HT: 1 D.Holden 49.09.  4x100m: 1 Belgrave 48.2 (R.King, C.Wilson U20, M.Nestor U20, A.Onuora U20). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:51.2 (C.Wilson U20 59.5, H.Stares 58.0, J.Hollman 57.0, 4 J.Culley 56.7).