British Athletics League National Division One, Match 1, Lee Valley

Above: The sprint dudes clocked 41.71 - Wade Bennett-Jackson, Greg Cackett, Seun Marcus and Thom Evans. Below Right: Ciaran Collins set a 400m pb of 49.74. Below left Paskar Owor and Álberto Lozano de Pedro were a formidable pairing in the middle distance races. Pictures by Bill Laws.

Room for improvement

Man on a mission

Having missed most of last season Mark Allen is a man on a mission. His aim by the end of the summer is to climb to seventh spot on the Belgrave all time BAL points list.* The ex-decathlete arrived at Lee Valley ready for a challenge. And he got it. He opened with the hammer at 11.30am, filled a high jump gap at 12.30 and simultaneously competed in the javelin and shot at 3.05pm. He also wanted to compete in the discus at 1.00pm but veterans Abi Ekoku and Leith Marar (both long time big point earners for Belgrave) thwarted him. But the throws proved problematic. First John Osazuwa had two no throws in the hammer and his final safe effort was some 20m short of his pb so Mark made the cut and John didn’t. And then Abi Ekoku had two no throws in the discus and his safe final effort was more than 20m shy of his pb. Aaron Crawford gained good points in a high standard javelin competition but overall the throws squad didn’t quite fulfil its promise.

While we were at least filling the field events once again there were big gaps on the track. With only J C Roghi in the 400H’s and Paskar Owor in the 800’s we gleaned just 12 points from the 56 on offer. But worse was to come as we had nobody in the chase. So effectively we had scored just 12 points from 84. But there was better news on the way thanks to our speed men.

Stunning time

The first glimpse of hope came in the n/s 100m where Seun Marcus, Pierre Walker and new man Thom Evans all ran pb’s. Add to them last year’s UK Challenge winner Greg Cackett and Wade Bennett Jackson (who missed the last two seasons through injury) and suddenly we had hope; and we were not disappointed. First Greg ripped to victory in the 100A in a fine pb of 10.43sec then to be followed by Wade with another win in the 100B producing an equally stunning time of 10.49sec. That will make a few people sit up as many had written Wade off. The sprint relay later in the match was eagerly awaited and provided another win for out sprinters. So, we'd taken a total of 72 points from the 72 on offer. With so many good sprinters on show these really were exceptional results.

And our other speed men were also enjoying themselves. The 110H proved an exceptional race with WSEH’s Lawrence Clarke speeding to a legal 13.47sec victory which shattered the Divisional record held by our own William Sharman (13.8 in 2009). Ex triple jumper Gary Wilson produced a 14.87sec pb for a Belgrave third spot and with JC in 5th place in the 110HB race we had gleaned more good points. Yet another pb was to follow. New member Ciaran Collins reduced his to 49.74sec gaining a valuable sixth place in the 400A.

Meanwhile the jumpers were toiling away in temperatures pushing 27deg C. Daniel Gardner won the A PV in an outdoor pb of 4.90m ably backed by Cameron Johnson who placed 4th in the B pool. Paul Ogun was jumping big but unfortunately was also destroying the plasticine on the long jump board. Two no jumps meant a safe third attempt which was not good enough to make the cut. As recompense Paul triple jumped. David Wellstead backed up both events but was disappointed with below par jumps.

Back on the track Wade Bennett-Jackson led the 200A up to 190m but faded badly to get useful third place points. Still, he is racing himself to fitness and there will be big improvements to come. He even volunteered for a leg in the 400 relay.

First appearance

The 1500m saw the first appearance for Belgrave of Álberto Lozano de Pedro. With A and B strings running together the first man home for each team scores in the A event and the second man in the B. More of a cross and road man Alberto sat at the back and when Paskar made a move on the leaders Álberto too made his move. Paskar was rewarded with second in the A race and Álberto concluded a fine début for Belgrave with a win in the B race. Twenty minutes later both men lined up for the 5000m. Paskar had the luxury of watching Álberto move from 10th to 2nd place on lap 10 with what can only be described as a 150m sprint. He then sat on Cardiff’s up and coming Rowan Axe before unleashing a ferocious kick to gain his first A string points for the club. Meanwhile Paskar cruised in for a B string win and maximum points.

Last year the final meeting event – the 4 x 400 relay – proved a step too far. This year we had numbers to compete. Junior Vladimir Woodham-Smith got pushed around a bit at the second take over and suffered accordingly but a fine final leg by Melvyn Anukam gained 6th spot and 6 valuable points. So after a day of downs and ups the team had clawed itself up to equal fifth spot, just 6 points off third place. It was that close. The next match is at Gateshead on the 30th June. The big question is can we get a full squad out for that one? Last year we only managed a team of 13 athletes for the Gateshead match so plenty of arm twisting to take place.

100m: 1 G Cackett 10.43/0.3; 1 W Bennett-Jackson 10.49/w/2.3; n/s 5rB T Evans 11.32/?; 7rB P Walker ntt; 4 S Marcus 11.08; 6 P Walker 11.26. 200m: 3 W Bennett-Jackson 21.43/0.6; 7 M Anukam 22.36/0.4. 400m: 6 C Collins 49.74; 8 JC Roghi 53.73. 800m: 5 P Owor 1:54.75; no B competitor. 1500m: 2 P Owor 3:53.05; 1 Á Lozano de Pedro 3:58.23. 5000m: 1 1 Á Lozano de Pedro 14:48.02; 1 P Owor 15:06.26. 110mH: 3 G Wilson 14.87/0.9; 5 JC Roghi 17.20/-0.1. 400mH: 8 JC Roghi 56.70; no B competitor. 3000mSC: no competitor. 4x100. 1 Belgrave 41.71 (W Bennett-Jackson, G Cackett, S Marcus, T Evans). 4x400: 3.26.85 (C Collins 51.4, R Aspden, 51.4, V Woodham Smith 54.1, M Anukam 50.0). HJ: 8 M Allen 1.65; 8 P Walker 1.40. LJ: 7 P Ogun 6.29; 5 D Wellstead 5.97. TJ: 4 P Ogun 14.53; 5 D Wellstead 13.38. PV: 1 D Gardner 4.90; 4 C Johnston 3.60. SP: 4 M Allen 13.46; 5 L Marar 11.69. DT: 4 L Marar M40 46.32; 3 A Ekoku M45 39.18. JT: 4 A Crawford 63.11; 4 M Allen 46.05. HT: 5 M Allen 53.00; 4 J Osazuwa 42.07.

League and match positions: 1 Enfield Haringey 8 (307); 2 Herne Hill H 7 (296); 3 Cardiff AAC 6 (271); 4 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 5 (267); 5= Belgrave H & Thames Valley H 3.5 (265); 7 Harrow AC 2 (248); 8 Gateshead H&AC 1 (237).

All time BAL points scores (to 2011)

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