British Athletics League Results & Reports 2006: Match One, Copthall Barnet Stadium

Young squad fights back for the win

The first match of the season is when management act more like travel agents than team leaders, writes Bill Laws. Their first task is to check who is still abroad, when will they be returning, and then to approach the delicate task of when they plan to compete. A number of our team valiantly answered the call with the record going to James Ellington who flew in to the UK at 2.00am match day and still managed to make a valuable contribution to both relays.

As the day turned out Belgrave spirits moved in the opposite direction to the weather, which started bright and sunny but turned gloomy and ended with torrential rain. Gloom had already descended on the Belgrave supporters after the first few events which suffered from below par performances: a “no height” in the pole vault and a “no distance” in the hammer, while Commonwealth games returnees, Mick Jones and Matt Douglas, suffered a drop in performance and paid the price. Similarly the discus performances were below par and worryingly Scot Thompson was referred for a medical assessment on what seemed to be a displaced neck vertebrae.

A ray of hope from Ryan

Ryan Dinham, back after a year of injury, produced the first ray of hope by winning the B 400H in a time faster than the A winner. To reward him for this magnificent effort the team managers allowed him to run the B 800m 30 minutes later and his single point could well have proved important as by this time the team score was about 50 points below planned and the Bels were languishing in 5th spot. But then … the sun was still shining. To be fair to Ryan - his single point would doubtless have been more had he not tightened a hamstring just when considering a move up the field at 600m. The A race had seen Joe van der Toorn, suffering from a cold, boldly step up from the B after a late withdrawal caught us on the hop.

It all started to turn round

And then, as the clouds rolled in, it all started to turn around. A second place in the A long jump (Adrian Phillips) backed by a win in the B (Richard Danso) was followed by good points in the A 100 where we saw the welcome return of Darren Chin (who lost last season through injury) backed up in the B 100 by Phillips Idowu (honing his speed). The ever reliable Will Cockerell produced one point more than anticipated in the steeplechase and then came our only maximum point event of the day as William Sharman won the A 110H in deteriorating conditions and Dom Girdler did likewise in the B race. William had previously won the non scoring 100 in a time faster than the B 100 winner and continues to confound and amaze the team managers.

Our youngest pairing

The shot saw our youngest pairing square up to some elder statesmen and they acquitted themselves with distinction. Chris Gearing was a clear second to Woodford’s Emeka Udechuku in the A competition while yet another returnee from injury, Mark Allen, produced a pb to win the B shot.

Then followed two hours of sublime track competition as the Premiership match events alternated with the Division 1 match which was being held in conjunction.

In the A 400 Set Osho continued to show improvement in a season which has only just started for him, while decathlete Louis Evling Jones was another one who missed last season through injury but ran the field down on the home straight to snatch a fine second spot in the B 400.

The skies opened

At about 3pm the skies opened to chill and soak the 1500 men. Eighteen year-old Kris Gauson was looking for a fast time after finishing third in the previous week’s BUSA’s and he was not disappointed as a high class field ignored the conditions and followed in the wake of Essex Beagle Mark Warmby who looked determined to lead from gun to tape. Kris gradually worked through the field and with 200m to go sprinted after the leader whom he just failed to catch while the Valley’s Ben Tickner sneaked silver in a last gasp lunge for the line. Kris was rewarded with a big pb and is getting himself a reputation. And who should be just a few paces behind but Richard Ward who not only won the B 1500 but showed that he too is beginning to get back some of the old sparkle.

And then two second places in the 200 with A runner Harry Aikines-Aryeetey finding the conditions very different from his recent training camp in the USA. More good points came from Darren Chin in the B 200. He is clearly not race fit but getting through this without injury is a key step on his road to recovery.

Best middle distance race in ten years

And then to the 5000m which many of those present thought was the best middle distance BAL race in depth they had seen over the last 10 years. With 8 runners finishing in under 14 min 15 secs in appalling conditions the athletes owed it to Phil Wicks who hit the front early and relentlessly ground out a fast pace for the next eight laps only to find the big guns were still there. Andy Coleman, of Enfield, jumped with 600 to go and was followed by an attentive Newham man in the form of Steve Hepples. Stephen Sharp (another who had returned recently from warm weather training in Portugal) sprinted to cover and passed Hepples but failed to catch Coleman. Phil stuck to his guns and both he and Stephen were rewarded with big pb’s. More excellent scores and Belgrave were suddenly leading by 19 points.

In the field we welcomed back Seni Majekodunmi. He, and late stand in Darragh O’Farrell (who had broken a leg in a decathlon pole vault in Ireland during the winter), kept the score ticking along before the high jump result knocked us back again. The late withdrawal of our A string saw the ubiquitous William Sharman promoted and despite not having jumped since last year he mixed it with the best in still atrocious conditions to clear 2m. Dalton Grant only beat him on count back. Our B man Louis Evling Jones was still running his B 400 as the high jump started due to a 30 minute delay in the track program. By the time he had recovered sufficiently to consider any vertical movement the bar was at 1.95. Too high for him to enter the competition. So, 6 points from the high jump instead of the hoped for 26 and we were back in the pack as the last three events approached.

Javelin boys did the business

Fortunately our javelin boys did the business. Wes Smith had flown in from Finland at midnight yet still won the B while James Everard nipped past him in the last round to get a good third in the A javelin. The run up for this event at Copthall is so poor that many throwers will not compete there. This together with the heavy rain had an adverse effect on distances.

It was going to the wire. The relays would sort it out one way or the other with WGwEL putting out strong teams and the Belgrave men under instructions just to get the batons round - and they did just that. In fact Tim Abeyie (who has left Belgrave and joined WGwEL) just beat Darren Chin to the line in the sprint relay but second was great by us.

And so to the final event. New man Chris Minn held third for much of the first leg but faded down the home straight so that Set Osho was having to look for him and the baton in the frenzy that marks the first changeover. Taking over in sixth spot Set gradually powered through moving up to second and being rewarded with a 47.6 split. Next came decathlete Kevin Sempers (who had earlier equalled his pole vault pb) who hung on gamely to again equal his fastest 400 split time. And then to James Ellington. The team managers can remember 14 years ago when they had persuaded John Regis to run his first ever 400 in the long relay. A touch of the deja vu’s here, then, as James strode round the first 200, moved up a place as he put in more effort to 300 and then fought to stay moving as the line approached. By the time he had finished he was barely able to stand. Total exhaustion and the look on his face seemed to say “never again”. But that was what John Regis had said and his split had been the same at 49.4. Will history repeat itself?

Actually at that moment not too many people were considering this semi-philosophical question. The relay men had done their jobs. The win, which 5 hours earlier had seemed impossible, had been achieved by a superb team effort. With five pb’s and one A string win backed by eight B string wins this really was a good day for our young squad.

And finally thanks to the Belgrave supporters and to Tony Ganio, sports masseur, whose magic hands eased tired legs and kept the team on track.

Results: 100m: 4 D Chin 10.89/-0.8; 4 P Idowu 11.17/-0.6; n/s 1r2 W Sharman U23 10.90/0.6. 200m: 2 H Aikines-Aryeetey U20 21.81/-0.4; 2 D Chin 21.94/-0.2. 400m: 4 S Osho U23 48.10; 2 L Evling-Jones 48.49. 800m: 4 J van der Toorn U20 1:53.70; 8 R Dinham U23 2:32.57. 1500m: 3 K Gauson U20 3:49.85; 1 R Ward 3:52.29. 5000m: 2 S Sharp 14:03.75; 1 P Wicks U23 14:07.50. 3000mSC: 7 W Cockerell 10:29.54; no B runner. 110mH: 1 W Sharman U23 14.22/-0.4; 1 D Girdler 14.32/1.1. 400mH: 2 M Douglas 52.30; 1 R Dinham U23 52.06. HJ: 6 W Sharman U23 2.00; no B competitor. LJ: 2 A Phillips 7.18; 1 R Danso 7.05. TJ: 5 S Majekodunmi 14.58; 6 D O'Farrell 12.37. PV: 5 K Sempers U23 4.20; J Ive U20 nh; SP: 2 C Gearing U23 16.71; 1 M Allen U23 15.98. DT: 5 L Marar 48.79; 1 S Thompson 47.37. JT: 3 J Everard 59.20; 1 W Smith 58.40. HT: 3 M Jones M40 62.65; 3nt K Chester U23. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 41.50 (W Sharman U23, H Aikines-Aryeetey U20, J Ellington U23, D Chin). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave (C Minn 52.5, S Osho U23 47.6, K Sempers U23 50.4, J Ellington U23 49.4).

Teams: 1 Belgrave 339; 2 Woodford Green wEL 316; 3 Enfield & Haringey 291; 4 Shaftesbury B 277; 5 Newham & EB 261; 6 Birchfield 254; 7 City of Manchester 250; 8 Thames Valley 179.

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