British Athletics League Division 1, Match 3, Gateshead
The Spartan Army
Bill Laws writes: Outnumbered and outgunned thirteen Belgrave athletes assembled at the splendidly refurbished Gateshead International Stadium for an epic battle against overwhelming numbers. Spartans to a man they mixed and matched to glean precious points but injury to Gary Wilson and a hard trip on Paskar Owor in his first event – the 800m – reduced effective numbers to eleven by the end of the match. Surely Belgrave’s smallest ever squad by far (previous was eighteen).
And yet at the final count their last place was just a tantalising 21 points behind sixth placed Blackheath and Bromley and 13 points behind seventh placed Crawley who had arrived en masse.
Good Performances
The field events started at 12.30 and saw the Bels devoid of pole vaulters. No show, no points. At the same time the hammer kicked off with Matt Richards our sole representative. Conscious of his three fouls in the previous match his apprehension was palpable and with his first two throws also deemed fouls it seemed another disaster was in the making. But a scrambled 48 metres saw him just make the cut and a final round effort of 61 metres gained a great second place. Relief all round.
Gary Wilson had arrived for the sprint hurdles and feeling good had agreed to “get one in” in the long jump, run the B100 and complete the sprint relay squad. His previous best of 7.06 metres was shattered in round two as he winged to 7.28m with a +0.4m/s wind. Great jubilation and with his expectation of more to come he completed all 6 jumps. His effort put him second in the A while Paul Ogun won the B. Great points.
Getting our middle distance men out has been a problem all year due to injuries and other commitments. Only Paskar Owor made it to Gateshead and as usual was down for the 800, 1500, 3000 and long relay. So reliable has he been that we expected solid points in the opening 800m. But boxed in, he was floored on the second lap and eventually jogged home in pain. The Gateshead physio worked wonders to get him ready for the 1500 (2nd) and 3000 (3rd) but the long relay team was pulled at the end of the match when defeat became inevitable, The long relay squad had worked hard enough already without needing pointless punishment. But let’s look at the middle distance debacle. With no steeplechasers, no B competitors in the 800, 1500 and 3000m we were not contesting a total of 64 match points. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that’s like fighting with one hand behind your back.
Greg Cackett is a name people are going to get familiar with. New to the sport after a spell in football he was unknown at the start of the season. But a series of steadily improving runs has seen him emerge as a raw sprint talent now respected by his opponents. The A 100m took place into a headwind gusting to more than 4m/s. With a field containing several international sprinters Greg blasted to an impressive victory with second placed Dwain Grant trailing 0.17sec in his wake. As emphatic a victory as you will see over class opposition. Meanwhile Gary Wilson had warmed up for the B100m but had to withdraw as his prolonged jumps efforts had aggravated an old injury. That also meant goodbye to the sprint hurdles and sprint relay. Big points lost as a result. Jean-Charles Rhogi (JC to us) moved up to the A sprint hurdles after his earlier effort as our sole 400m hurdler.
Max high jump points
But just as lack of numbers was beginning to take its toll the jumps were to provide more good news. Long jump specialist Paul Ogun managed fifth spot in the A triple with a legal 14.09m effort. Once again there was no B competitor. Darvin Edwards and Samson Oni came up on the day by train with Coach Trevor Llewellyn and duly scored max high jump points to boost the team. Travelling so far on the day is not ideal preparation and the heights reflected this. But Darvin who is off to the World Champs on 23rd August as 50% of the St Lucian team was able to get last minute tips from his coach.
The throwers again provided great support despite both Mark Wiseman and Mark Allen having other commitments. Greg Beard won the A shot and squeezed a good third place in the A discus. Aaron Crawford gained a fine second place in the javelin but unhelpful winds curtailed distances. Aaron backed up the B discus for points as did Clifton Green in the shot to follow a solid third place in the B javelin.
Matt Threadgold and Cameron Webb had to wait till 4.00pm before their first event the 400m. Twenty minutes later they ran the 200 and a further 20 minutes later the sprint relay. Paul Ogun stood in for the final leg despite trying to dodge it by reporting he had only run one before and had not taken the baton. Commendable baton changing and a storming back straight by Greg Cackett saw Cameron Webb handing the baton to Paul Ogun in fourth place. Paul showed remarkable speed for a long jumper but had to concede to specialists. The squad finished in a creditable sixth spot recording 42.70sec - the best Belgrave relay time for the season.
So there you have it. A great performance from a tiny squad; but we had failed to contest 152 points from the 508 on offer. We will have to do better in the final match of the season to ensure relegation is avoided.
100m: 1 G Cackett 10.80/-3.7; no B competitor. 200m: 8 M Threadgold 23.22/-3.1; 8 C Webb 23.97/-2.1. 400m: 6 M Threadgold 49.35; 7 C Webb 51.26. 800m: 8 P Owor 2:07.53; no B competitor. 1500m: 2 P Owor 3:57.33; no B competitor. 3000m: 3 P Owor 8:35.45; no B competitor. 110mH: 7 J-C Roghi 16.35/-2.8; no B competitor. 400mH: 7 J-C Roghi 55.71; no B competitor. 3000mSC: no competitors. HJ: 1 D Edwards 2.15; 1 S Oni 2.10. LJ: 2 G Wilson 7.28/0.4; 1 P Ogun 7.02/1.2. TJ: 5 P Ogun 14.09/0.3; no B competitor. PV: no competitors. SP: 1 G Beard 16.78; 8 C Green 8.02. DT: 3 G Beard 45.67; 8 A Crawford 23.14. JT: 2 A Crawford 60.96; 4 C Green 47.00. HT: 2 M Richards 61.00; no B competitor. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave 42.70 (M Threadgold, G Cackett, C Webb, P Ogun). 4x400m: no competitors.
Match result: 1 City of Liverpool 361.5; 2 Kent AC 321; 3 Gateshead H&AC 296.5; 4 Windsor SE&H 290; 5 Harrow AC 262; 6 Blackheath &B 229; 7 Crawley AC 214; 8 Belgrave H 201.
League positions after three matches: 1 Kent AC 20 (911); 2 City of Liverpool 19.5 (936.5); 3 Gateshead H&AC 15 (847.5); 4 Windsor SE&H 15 (840); 5 Harrow AC 13.5 (817); 6 Belgrave H 11 (772); Blackheath &B 8 (735); 8 Crawley AC 6 (690).
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.