British Athletics League Results & Reports 2009: Match 3, Gateshead

Promotion secured

After three matches

Belgrave H

Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC

Kent AC

Basingstoke &MH AC

City of Liverpool

Gateshead H

Notts AC

Border H

With several of our athletes living on the south coast, travelling to Gateshead was always going to be provide logistical problems. Cars seemed to be the favoured mode of transport. Numerous road works and speed restrictions are the constant bane of travel in the UK and once again the M25 is suffering at the hands of civil engineers. Longest recorded journey time was by Jody Chappell who slated a nine hour trip. But then we heard the Windsor team coach had lost a wheel on the M1 and their journey time was a record setting eleven hours! Who says League athletics is fun?

John Powell joined Bill Laws to manage a team which became smaller and smaller as the week progressed. Eventually 18 hardy souls presented themselves for competition at a rain spattered and very windy Gateshead track. In conditions more like autumn than summer the match was to yield yet another fighting victory from a team which just wants to win.

Frantic chase to keep all events covered

Match 2 had seen major points accumulated by the throws squad. We knew this match would not have top shot and discus man Mark Wiseman who was busily defending his world masters titles in Finland. Then Mark Allen called to report injury but pluckily drove up to take standing throws in the hammer, shot and discus. His normal massive total of A string points became much smaller but nonetheless made an essential contribution. Top hammer man Matthew Richards too had pulled out two days earlier, again with injury, so the hammer team was completed by javelin specialist James Everard who also pole vaulted and high jumped for points. Decathletes Louis Evling-Jones and Kyle McCarthy added nine events between them in a frantic chase to keep all events covered.

Sprinters set the pace

On the track the sprinters set the pace with James Ellington defeating strong fields in the 100m and 200m, recording impressive times in head winds which had been gusting up to 4.5 m/sec. Set Osho stepped down to win the B100 and almost got up for a win in the 200m. Louis Evling-Jones gained an unexpected third spot in the A400 to add more points. Mark Pollard and Shaun Moralee were caught out for speed in the 800’s but made amends with good points in the 1500’s. They then ran legs in the long relay as the shortage of numbers finally told on a weary squad. In the 5000m James Kelly got a rare win over Simon Jones who had not interrupted a high mileage training schedule but again, much better points from our middle distance men. Graeme Hyett made a welcome return in the steeplechase and had hoped that his heavy army training would have given him some fitness. Sadly this was not to be and he suffered along with Matthew Morgan who went off too fast and paid the price.

The wind caused all kinds of problems for the hurdlers but Will Sharman, despite his late call up for the World Champs., produced another clear win in the 110H A event backed by Kyle McCarthy’s third spot in the B race. Earlier an unfit Matt Douglas finished a creditable 5th in the A 400H but in the B Paul Beaumont tripped over a hurdle but had the presence of mind to stay in lane and finish. At 46 years of age we keep saying farewell to Paul but he keeps coming back when needed.

Season's best

The highlight of the jumps was Sam Colgate’s win in the A pole vault with a season’s best of 4.63m. Also jumping a season’s best was Jody Chappell in the last round of the long jump with Kyle winning the B. Jody also triple jumped and his partner, Joe Evling-White made his debut in the senior team having been a major player in our junior teams of six years ago. The high jump competition clashed with the sprint hurdles, shot and javelin due to timetable drift, so we gained fewer points than hoped as neither Kyle nor James could get back for the higher heights.

All afternoon there had been big variations to the team positions as each club appeared to follow a good event with a poor one. As the relays approached it was clear that Belgrave still could lose the winning spot they found themselves in after the passage of 34 events (17 A and 17 B). Jody Chappell ran the second bend as he joined the three specialist sprinters in the short relay. Will Sharman led off with a fine effort out of the blocks. A fumbled handover to Set Osho, but then a good back straight saw Jody take the baton safely running a good bent to transfer to James Ellington who was fully 8m down on the Kent AC man. Another display of top class sprinting from James saw the gap close, slowly at first but then more rapidly as he saluted the anticipated victory. Dragging tired bodies to a better than expected 7th spot the long relay men concluded another memorable win. A moment of celebration and for some the long slog home knowing that promotion back to the Premiership had been secured.

100m: 1 J Ellington 10.66/-3.5; 1 S Osho 11.04/-3.6. 200m: 1 J Ellington 21.44/-1.7; 2 S Osho 22.02/-3.4. 400m: 3 L Evling-Jones 48.57; 5 K McCarthy 51.05. 800m: 5 S Moralee 1:52.63; 6 M Pollard 1:57.47. 1500m: 3 S Moralee 3:56.16; 2 M Pollard 3:58.02. 5000m: 4 J Kelly 14:43.02; 1 S Jones 14:43.66. 110mH: 1 W Sharman 14.30/-1.8; 3 K McCarthy 15.73/-1.9. 400mH: 5 M Douglas 55.49; 8 P Beaumont 78.97. 3000mSC: 6 M Morgan 10:18.34; 4 G Hyett 10:43.98. HJ: 5= K McCarthy 1.83; 6 J Everard 1.73. LJ: 3 J Chappell 6.90w/4.4; 1 K McCarthy 6.69w/3.1. TJ: 5 J Evling-White 12.81/0.4; 4 J Chappell 12.21/1.0. PV: 1 S Colgate 4.63; 6 J Everard 2.40. SP: 5 M Allen 12.77; 3 L Evling-Jones 12.03. DT: 5 L Evling-Jones 43.93; 5 M Allen 37.33. JT: 6 J Everard 56.11; 3 L Evling-Jones 47.68. HT: 8 J Everard 23.02; 7 M Allen 21.64. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 41.44 (W Sharman, S Osho, J Chappell, J Ellington). 4x400m: 7 Belgrave 3:32.47 (M Douglas, K McCarthy, S Moralee, M Pollard).

Match result: 1 Belgrave H 306; 2 Windsor SE&H 288; 3 Gateshead H 287; 4 Kent AC 283; 5 Basingstoke &MH 259; 6 Liverpool 272; 7 Notts AC 249; 8 Border H 247.

Below: Star of the show was James Ellington with a 100m/200m 'A' string double and a scintillating run on last leg of the sprint relay. Regular 5000m runner James Kelly (22) was joined by Simon Jones (2). Photos by John Powell.

After three matches	League Points	Match Points
Belgrave H	24	980.2
Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC	21	922.2
Kent AC	14	826.2
Basingstoke &MH AC	14	816.2
City of Liverpool	12	804.7
Gateshead H	12	788.2
Notts AC	6	717.6
Border H	5	672

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