British Athletics League Results & Reports 2008: Match 1, Alexander Stadium, Birmingham

Below: In his second attempt at the height, high jumper Samson Oni came so close to clearing a lifetime best of 2.33m at Birmingham. He'd already equalled his best ever and set a division record at 2.30m.

Above: William Sharman outruns Newham's Gianni Frankis in the sprint hurdles and clocks a season's best of 13.70. Below, left to right: James Ellington had an indifferent start in the 100m and couldn't quite get back into contention in a race where 1/10th of a second covered 2nd to 6th places. Wade Bennett-Jackson placed second in the B 100m. Winner of the B non-scoring 100m and 4th in the B 200m was Jason Hussain with 10.87 and 21.58.

What a difference a month makes

League positions after one match

Newham & Essex Beagles

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies

City of Manchester

Birchfield

Shaftesbury Barnet

Belgrave Harriers

Enfield & Haringey

Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow

Traditionally the first match of the season has been in early May when cold weather inhibits attendances and drags down performances. The new later start to the season has the merit of avoiding other early fixtures and has the added benefit of longer days and warmer weather. And so it turned out this year with temperatures in Birmingham outdoing many Mediterranean sun spots.

Samson Oni - Olympic qualifying height

The League organisers were rewarded with a high class competition which produced a number of excellent performances, a host of pb’s and one Olympic A standard performance from our own Samson Oni.

But for Belgrave the situation was not so rosy. At least twelve key A string men were unavailable and with a points prediction of 281 our best hope was a solid fifth place. But even that was to prove optimistic. We started badly.

Our first three events, the hammer, pole vault and long jump were expected to yield just 32 points out of a possible maximum A and B string total of 84. Spearman James Everard insisted on vaulting for a point and cleared a height that would have proved a challenge for a competent limbo dancer. Add to that our B string long jumper had three fouls and the points amassed to a meagre 27. We were in seventh spot.

A rewarding day for Louis ... a season's best for William

But 2007 AAA’s champion decathlete Louis Evling-Jones was at the start of a rewarding days work. First a pb in the A string long jump (7.38) then a 1.90m high jump which he had to curtail in order to race the B high hurdles earning an excellent third spot in another huge pb of 14.49 sec. To cap a good day’s work he led off the long relay to hand over in second spot. And to add good points we had two of the best performances of the day as first Samson Oni decimated the high jump field to record an Olympic qualifying A standard height of 2.30m into a tricky headwind; he missed 2.33m by the narrowest of margins to promise even greater feats in the future. And just before this William Sharman posted a huge season’s best to win the A high hurdles in 13.70 sec. Even more bouncy than usual he was rewarded with last leg in the long relay and to the surprise of everyone he held form to the line but was completely shattered in the process. He was silent for about 2 minutes afterwards which was another record. The sport needs more characters like William. In the 400m hurdles Matt Douglas made a return after a horrendous 18 months dogged by injury. Treating his first track outing as a training day he worked hard, adding the B400 and long relay to his schedule. Fortunately he emerged unscathed. Jean-Charles Roghi made his debut for Belgrave in the B 400m hurdles and gained an encouraging fifth place.

Above left: Jonathan Blackledge (1) finished strongly in the 800m to squeeze past Andy Brown of Woodford Green wEL (8) for third place, but Frank Baddick (Newham & Essex Beagles 5) jumped them both. Above right: Dave Mason (11) and Alex Bodin tackle the steeplechase. It was Alex's first run over the barriers and his 10:13.07 will surely be reduced.

Alex takes up the challenge

On the track Jon Blackledge moved down in distance to gain third spot in the A 800. Joe van de Toorn found himself in what was to be a faster race in the B 800m going through in 53 sec and predictably suffering from 200m out. He will have learnt a lot from that and will soon be reducing his best times. Steve Sharp left his surge in the 1500m too late but moved from sixth to second in the home straight while junior Nick Goolab, in his first BAL match, showed a similar turn of speed to be rewarded with a pb and third in the B race. Mark Pollard had been due to race the 1500 but moved up to the 5000m to cover a late withdrawal. Sadly the extra distance and heat took its toll and he drifted back after a forceful start. James Kelly held up better in the trying conditions to gain a creditable third in the A race. Steeplechasers are as rare as hen’s teeth so youngster Alex Bodin has taken up the challenge and in his first race over the barriers clocked a creditable 10min13sec which should be suitably reduced in his next outing.

Above: Dwain Chambers (1) ran 10.28 in the non-scoring 100m, chased by Martin Blencowe (11).

Fastest 100 of the day

The sprints provided much interest. Dwain Chambers ran the fastest 100 of the day in the non scoring A guest race which also saw the first appearance of Martin Blencowe who has just returned from studies in the USA. Jason Hussain won the B guest 100m and gained fourth in the match B 200m. Chris Lambert struggled in the A 200 and appeared to have an injury. He withdrew from the sprint relay and Jason stepped in to complete a quartet led off by Dwain Chambers which was pipped by a good Newham squad who ducked under 40 secs but nonetheless we recorded our fastest time for a number of years. The other sprint squad members James Ellington and Wade Bennett Jackson had earlier found the match 100’s of high quality where fractions of a second meant the difference between first and last.

The throws failed to amass their usual number of points but it was good to see Scot Thompson adding to his total with good efforts in the shot, discus and javelin. Mark Allen made a welcome return after a break.

All in all a below par performance but at least one place better than the opening match last year. We’ll give the team managers another chance to get it right in match 2 at Windsor on 5^th July. Be there!!

Samson Oni won “man of the match” as part of the UKA Challenge which incorporates BAL matches and other meetings. His cheque is no doubt winging to him as you read this.

100m: 7 J Ellington 10.54w/2.6; 2 W Bennett-Jackson 10.64/1.0; n/s 1rA D Chambers 10.28/1.6; 3 M Blencowe 10.75/1.6; 1rB J Hussain 10.87/1.5. 200m: 4 C Lambert 21.14/1.4; 4 J Hussain 21.58/1.6. 400m: 8 R Thomas 49.63; 8 M Douglas 49.65. 800m: 3 J Blackledge 1:52.54; 5 J van der Toorn 1:55.57. 1500m: 2 S Sharp 3:50.61; 3 N Goolab U20 3:57.08. 5000m: 3 J Kelly 14:54.06; 5 M Pollard 15:22.05. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 13.70/-0.3; 3 L Evling-Jones 14.49w/3.2. 400mH: 6 M Douglas 53.35; 5 J-C Roghi 54.87. 3000mSC: 7 A Bodin 10:13.07; 6 D Mason 10:41.11. HJ: 1 S Oni 2.30 (=DR); 5= L Evling-Jones 1.90. LJ: 4 L Evling-Jones 7.38w/3.7; 3nj G Wilson. TJ: 5 G Wilson 14.66w/2.8; 5 D Wellstead 14.00/1.7. PV: 6 C Johnston 4.40; 7 J Everard 1.20. SP: 5 S Thompson 15.59; 3 M Allen 14.47. DT: 5 L Marar 49.97; 4 S Thompson 49.23. JT: 5 J Everard 60.14; 6 S Thompson 47.74. HT: 7 J Osazuwa 57.46; 5 M Allen 47.84. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 40.39 (D Chambers, J Ellington, J Hussain, W Bennett-Jackson). 4x400m: 5 Belgrave 3:16.09 (L Evling-Jones 48.3, R Thomas 48.8, M Douglas 49.1, W Sharman 49.9).

Above: Matt Douglas hands the baton to Will Sharman for the last leg of the last race - the 4 x 400m relay.

League positions after one match	League Points	Match Points
Newham & Essex Beagles	8	334.5
Woodford Green with Essex Ladies	7	327
City of Manchester	6	309
Birchfield	5	285.5
Shaftesbury Barnet	4	263.5
Belgrave Harriers	3	254.5
Enfield & Haringey	2	235
Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow	1	175

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