British Athletics League Division 1, Match 1, Copthall Stadium, Barnet

Darvin the magnificent - Olympic and World Champs qualifier in the high jump

Diary notes 31st May. “Bank Holiday weather fine, Belgrave team looks good. Happy days”. 1st June. “Still no final OK from several athletes. Better chase again.” Result. Three withdrawals due to recent injuries. 2nd June. "Two more withdrawals plus others competing abroad. Ouch, Ask the four Squad Managers to mix and match their squads for best points”.

We all know that Friday teams look very different from Monday teams, writes Bill Laws, but the lead up to match 1 was more traumatic than usual. In the end a squad of just 19 performed above expectations pulling back from a difficult start to be just one point off the lead with the long relay to go. Where the team had suffered particularly badly was in the one lap event and not surprisingly we failed to contest the last relay and drifted back to finish a creditable third. This had all the hall marks of the last match of last season when the squad was reduced to just 18 and managed to amass only 186 points. This time our merry band excelled themselves to produce a total of 297 points with a combination of quality performances and much determination.

Introductions

But first an intro to the new men on the block. We welcomed four new members to the squad. First, Greg Cackett who last year retired from football to take up sprints. In a few short months he has made a big impression and his Belgrave BAL debut produced a fine third place in a quality A100m followed by anchoring the sprint relay squad to a solid fourth place. In the pole vault we welcomed two new members - Robert Warensjo who finished second in the A event with 4.80m losing only on count back and 17 year old Daniel Gardner who won the B with a fine 4.60m clearance. Daniel was looking for a 4.80m height to qualify for the World Youth championships. Despite his disappointment he agreed to step in to cover the B high jump a couple of hours later equalling his pb to gain second and more good points. More about the high jump later. Another new addition was Babatunde Amosa who not only won the A triple jump but also finished fourth in the B long jump. And the last new squad member was Cameron Webb who came to run a non scoring 100m and finished up running the A400 to keep the points total moving.

Jumps and throws are big earners

The creation of a new team management structure with 4 squads looks as though it passed its first test with flying colours. There were two big point scoring squads. Tony Ganio’s jumps men snapped up 92 of the 112 points on offer. aided by Paul Ogun who came third in the A long jump and third in the B triple jump. and Darvin Edwards in the high jump. Darvin produced a quite enthralling demonstration of controlled power as he not only decimated Dalton Grant’s 15 year old Nat 1 League record of 2.21m but went on to get a first time clearance at 2.25m followed by a World and Olympic qualifying jump of 2.28m. Not surprisingly he was awarded man of the match. Not to be out done Clifton Green’s throws squad mixed and matched to make up for the loss of Mick Jones and Mark Allen. They banked 85 points from 112 on offer. Mark Wiseman won the A discus and finished second in the B hammer and B shot. These last two events were taking place at the same time due to problems with the inside hammer cage. The hammer was changed to the cage outside the arena and Mark could be seen striding purposefully between the two, such was his determination to gain good points. Greg Beard won the A shot, B discus and had one heave with the spear. Clifton Green doesn’t like head winds and his javelin fell short of expectations and Matthew Richards threw the hammer but was affected by a cold that had stopped his training over the last week.

The middle distance squad was just a three man band with Paskar Owor topping the individual points score of the day with a personal contribution of 34 smackers! Just five days after the London 10k he had lost a bit of speed finishing fifth in the A800, fourth in the A1500 but redeemed himself to win the A5000 having steadily overhauled the early break away leader from Gateshead. Meanwhile James Kelly jetted in from Madrid to gain third in the B 1500 and B 5000. The final member of our middle distance squad was Will Cockerell, ever eager to add to his all time points total gaining 7 valuable ones by strolling round the B800 and finishing a creditable 6th in the chase as our only representative. The chase had a somewhat unreal air because the water jump was excluded as it was less than half full due to lack of water pressure.

A full complement of sprinters

After last year, when we had six sprinters injured, it was a relief to have a full complement this year. Laurence Oboh has just re-surfaced having retired in 2005 at the tender age of 21. He has no miles on the clock so we expect great things from him. Luke Giblin ran a pb in the B200 to finish third but Craig Fleming was dqd in the B100 although it was the man in the lane next to him who jumped the gun. With no established sprint hurdles or 400m men it was left to Jean Charles Rhogi to add some creditability to these events. In the 400H he was third at hurdle 8 but faded to fourth. Nonetheless these were much better points than in recent years but with no B string man more points were lost. JC went on to finish third in the B110H and seventh in the B 400m. Matt Douglas doesn’t train these days but ran the sprint hurdle A race for a point.

Finally a big thanks to our new match physio Chris Lewis who worked on most of the team to get them to their next event. They really appreciated his efforts.

So all in all an encouraging day. Congratulations to Gateshead who did well to win so far from home. They host match 3 and it will be there that our fate will be decided.

100m: 3 G Cackett 10.46w/2.5; dq C Fleming. 200m: 7 L Oboh 22.09w/2.4; 3 L Gibling 21.56/1.4. 400m: 8 C Webb 51.10; 7 J Roghi 55.36. 800m: 5 P Owor 1:54.09; 8 W Cockerell 2: 21.61. 1500m: 4 P Owor 3:55.93; 3 J Kelly 4:04.82. 5000m: 1 P Owor 14:44.76; 3 J Kelly 15:21.29. 110mH: 8 M Douglas 16.92; 3 J Roghi 16.08. 400mH: 4 J Roghi 54.97; no B competitor. 3000mSC: (no water jump) 6 W Cockerell 9:55.93; no B competitor. HJ: 1 D Edwards 2.28 (BAL Div 1 Record, St. Lucian Record); 2 D Gardner 1.75. LJ: 3 P Ogun 7.13/1.5;4 B Amosa 6.49w/3.7 (6.15/1.6). TJ: 1 B Amosa 15.52w/2.2; 4 P Ogun 13.45w/2.3. PV: 2 R Warensjo 4.80; 1 D Gardner 4.60. SP: 1 G Beard 17.47; 2 M Wiseman M40 14.08. DT: 1 M Wiseman M40 51.07. 1 G Beard 45.96. JT: 4 C Green 57.77; 8 G Beard 35.82. HT: 4 M Richards 59.53; 2 M Wiseman 48.44. 4x100m: 4 Belgrave 42.38 (L Gibling, C Fleming, L Oboh, G Cackett). 4x400m: no team.

Teams: 1 Gateshead 314; 2 Kent 300; 3 Belgrave 297; 4= City of Liverpool and Harrow 277; 6 Blackheath 268; 7 Windsor SE&H 232; 8 Crawley 217.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.