British Athletics League Results & Reports 2009: Match 2, Thames Valley Athletic Centre
Above: Set Osho cruised to a 47.6sec win in the A string 400 metres.
Above: Moving up the all-time points rankings in a big way, Mark Allen scores heavily in every match. At Eton he was 2nd in the B hammer and winner of the B discus and shot - 34 points! Photo by Derek Riley.
We're on course
After two matches
Belgrave H
Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC
Basingstoke & Mid-Hants
Kent AC
City of Liverpool
Gateshead H
Notts AC
Border H
A good result from match two to consolidate our number one position was the target as team managers checked on the availability of key athletes in the two weeks prior to the Eton meeting. As National 12 stage road relay champions we have always been able to be competitive from the 800m upwards. But numerous text messages and emails soon showed that a shock was in store. Overseas races plus several injuries ruled out most of our middle distance stars. The result was that we started the match with no B race competitors in the 800m, 1500m, and 3000s/c. Indeed if recent dad Will Cockerell had not stepped in at the last minute we may have had no B runner in the 5000m. Fortunately in all other departments support was strong and winning still seemed a probability as pre match points estimate showed somewhere between 356 and 362 points were possible barring mishaps on the day. But - there were mishaps.
It started so well
It started so well with Matthew Richards again getting second in the A hammer backed by Mark Allen’s second place in the B. Mark went on to bag huge points by winning both the B shot and B discus as Mark Wiseman confirmed himself as a valuable addition to the team by winning the A discus and gaining bronze in the A shot. Later in the day the final throws event, the javelin, was to see the welcome return of Wes Smith competing for the first time since he broke his arm throwing in 2007. He finished second in the B while James Everard relished the high standard by registering a 62.29m effort for fourth in the A. Combined, the four throwing disciplines had pulled in a massive 96 points from a possible maximum of 112 points.
Above left: Big points from the big men - Matthew Richards and Mark Allen earned a second place each in the hammer. Above right: All eyes on Gary Wilson as he opens his long jump account.
Below left: Kyle McCarthy damaged his hand in pole vault practice two days earlier but it didn't slow him down in the hurdles where he placed 3rd in the B event. Below right: Man of the match Will Sharman was the class act in the sprint hurdles. Photos by Derek Riley.
Electric timing system refused to operate
Two hours into the meeting the track started with the usual 400 hurdles. Sean Reidy ran a season’s best for third place in the A event but had to settle for a hand timing as the electric timing system refused to operate – a situation which was not rectified for the rest of the match and caused much frustration. Matthew Threadgold struggled in the B but had run 2 seconds quicker two weeks earlier so clearly has time to get things sorted. In the following 100m races runners had the double aggravation of no wind speeds or electric timing. Good points accumulated in the A race with James Ellington, after a terrible start, getting edged into second by U23 Champion Rion Pierre. Wade Bennett-Jackson won the B 100 in the same time as Pierre but felt a slight hamstring pull and his day was over. William Sharman who had won the 110H by a huge 0.6 sec was drafted into the A200 to replace him and in his first race over this distance this year recorded a respectable 22.0sec while Jason Hussain racing in the BAL for the first time since a major operation in 2008 was pleased with his third spot in the B200 in 22.1. Later we were to gain maximum points in the 400m as the rejuvenated Set Osho cruised to a 47.6sec win in the A event and Louis Evling Jones stormed to a win in the B race with 48.7.
Disaster was hitting our jumps squad
Meanwhile disaster was hitting our jumps squad. In the long jump it started well with Gary Wilson finishing fourth in the A and Jody Chappell second in the B. But when Gary returned for his speciality event at which he is currently ranked 9th in the UK trouble struck. During warm up for the triple jump the 13m board was not secured and Gary twisted an ankle and he rightly decided not to take part in the competition bearing in mind next week’s trials. Jody replaced him, jumping in flats and he too picked up a slight injury. At about the same time Darvin Edwards injured his back without clearing a height in the high jump. Decathlete Kyle McCarthy cleared 1.90m for what turned out to be third place in the A event before rushing to the B high hurdles where he ran a season’s best to gain another valuable third spot. Kyle competed with an injured hand which had resulted from a freak accident involving a pole breaking during vaults training. He was later to run the third leg in the long relay where again we finished third. A bit of pattern for him there! With Gary and Darvin bombing out, approximately 30 points went down the chute but the pole vault results redressed the balance as Sam Colgate (another returning from injury) gained second place in the A with 4.50m while the consistent Cameron Johnston won the B.
Middle distance races … a mere 33 points out of a possible 112
All afternoon Belgrave had slugged it out with hosts WSEH who had been having trouble with their middle distance events too. They out gunned us in these events but not by much. Mark Humphries tried hard to break his pb in the 800m going through the bell in 59sec but paid the price and finished at the back of the field. Richard Ward also came off the physio’s couch to be our sole representative in the 1500 and struggled to seventh place, but there was better news in the 3000 steeplechase where Matthew Morgan produced a solid third spot. However there were only four competitors in the B ‘chase with the third placer running 11min. 53 and last man 14min. 08 and with no B representative we missed out on some soft points. Without wishing to rub it in too much the four middle distance races had accumulated a mere 33 points out of a possible 112 which confirms that in most of the leagues the standard of middle distance races remains high and there is no easy race.
Into overdrive
So to the last two events – the relays. By now Belgrave were leading WSEH by just 16 points, a nice buffer but disasters are never far away and it would need some cool thinking to see this one home safely. First the decision had to be made as to who would replace the injured Wade. After some head scratching the order was decided. Set Osho led off from lane 1 running a storming bend to hand to Jason Hussain just level with WSEH. Pierre ran a great back straight to open up a sizeable gap for our rivals but James Ellington moved into overdrive around the bend to pass the baton in the lead to William Sharman who needs no second invitation to show boat and milked the applause as this scratch team move 1.4 seconds clear of a good WSEH squad. 41.3 is highly respectable and is well up this years rankings.
Our lead was now 18 points as the final event, the long relay started. We couldn’t get caught but that did not stop fighting efforts from 18 year old Melvyn Anukam, Sean Reidy, Kyle McCarthy and Louis Evling-Jones who held on for third place in a respectable 3min 19.3secs. Our final points score was 333 giving a victory over WSEH of just 14 points. Well done to them. It had been an enjoyable roller coaster day of team athletics.
Man of the match was William Sharman whose 13.8sec 110H victory had equalled a long standing League 1 manual timed record held by Colin Jackson. If the electric timing had been available he would be the outright record holder now. That’s life!
Big thanks too to Jonas Dodoo for being the team’s sports therapist for the first time. He was thrown in at the deep end and looked after not only Belgrave athletes but also those from Gateshead who under a reciprocal arrangement will provide Belgrave athletes with physio cover at the next match in Gateshead. Put the date in your diary – Saturday Aug 1st 2009.
100m: 2 J Ellington 10.6; 1 W Bennett-Jackson 10.5. 200m: 6 W Sharman 22.0; 3 J Hussain 22.1. 400m: 1 S Osho 47.6; 1 L Evling-Jones 48.7. 800m: 8 M Humphrey 2:06.4; no B competitor. 1500m: 7 R Ward 3:58.2; no B competitor. 5000m: 5 J Kelly 14:53.0; 5 W Cockerell 16:01.2. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 13.8; 3 K McCarthy 15.4. 400mH: 3 S Reidy 53.3; 6 M Threadgold 56.6. 3000mSC: 3 M Morgan 10:09.5; no B competitor. HJ: 3 K McCarthy 1.90; - D Edwards no ht. LJ: 4 G Wilson 6.63; 2 J Chappell 6.45. TJ: 5 D Wellstead 13.93; 6 J Chappell 11.03. PV: 2 S Colgate 4.50; 1 C Johnston 4.40. SP: 3 M Wiseman 14.94; 1 M Allen 14.82. DT: 1 M Wiseman 50.74; 1 M Allen 45.67. JT: 4 J Everard 62.29; 2 W Smith 49.22. HT: 2 M Richards 58.35; 2 M Allen 53.44. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 41.3 (S Osho, J Hussain, J Ellington, W Sharman). 4x400m: 3 Belgrave 3:19.3 (M Anukam U20 50.8, S Reidy 50.1, K McCarthy 49.6, L Evling-Jones 48.8.
Match result: 1 Belgrave H 333; 2 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 319; 3 Basingstoke & MH 285; 4 Kent AC 281; 5 Gateshead H 258; 6 Border H 249; 7 City of Liverpool 233.5; 8 Notts AC 218.5.
Above: Melvyn Anukam sets the 4 x 400m quartet off on first leg. Sean Reidy hands the baton to Kyle McCarthy at the end of leg two. Division Secretary Ivor Wiggett hands the man-of-the-match award to William Sharman for his record equalling 13.8 in the high hurdles.
Below: Matthew Richards again took second place in the hammer but couldn't quite reach his 60.06 pb set in match one. Photo by Derek Riley.
|
After two matches |
League Points | Match Points |
|
Belgrave H |
16 | 674.2 |
|
Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC |
14 | 634.2 |
|
Basingstoke & Mid-Hants |
11 | 557.2 |
|
Kent AC |
9 | 543.2 |
|
City of Liverpool |
8 | 532.7 |
|
Gateshead H |
6 | 501.2 |
|
Notts AC |
4 | 468.6 |
|
Border H |
4 | 425 |
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.