British Athletics League Results & Reports 2010: Match 3, Thames Valley Athletics Centre, Eton

Acts of dedication ... but a frustrating climax

Match: 1 Newham & Essex Beagles 368; 2 Birchfield H 349; 3 Woodford Green w Essex Ladies 278; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet H 268; 5 City of Manchester 263; 6 Enfield & Haringey 227; 7 Belgrave H 217; 8 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 204.

After three matches

Newham & Essex Beagles

Birchfield H

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies

Shaftesbury Barnet H

City of Manchester

Enfield & Haringey

Belgrave H

Windsor, Slough Eton & Hounslow AC

At a time when support for team competition appears to be declining a few acts of dedication brought comfort on a day when Belgrave’s fight to avoid relegation all but evaporated.

First Mark Wiseman, who last week won the European Masters throws pentathlon in Budapest, drove back from Hungary to not only compete in the hammer, shot and discus but also beat two of his previous week's distances. Add to that the fact that James Everard who flew in from Spain in the morning, collected his javelins from home, battled the worst of the M25 and in the evening flew out to South Africa - and in the interim gained third place in the javelin with a throw which was just a fraction short of his life time best. And then there was the late call up for Abi Ekoku who hasn’t picked up a discus for two years and has a fractured finger on his throwing hand; he frightened the 50m mark to gain third spot in the B event. Finally the heavy squad saw the welcome return (after an eight year layoff) of Greg Beard whose 15.56m effort after only four weeks training promises much more in the future.

If the throws were looking up then the same could not be said for the sprints, pole vault and hurdles where the 100 per cent figure applied only to the list of injured athletes - nine in total. Mixing and matching was the order of the day with a few bright spots including Set Osho’s pb in the 200m A race. New member David Feeney added respectability to the sprint hurdles but other than that there was little to cheer on the track with one notable exception.

And that exception was Paskar Owor who produced an incredible afternoon's work with 4th in the A800 (1.50.96), 2nd in the A1500 (3.48.88) and 3rd in the 5000m (14.32.89). Three fine performance all in the space of four hours.

But we were leaking too many points despite the efforts of Samson Oni in the high jump, Boris Bozhinov in the long jump and Gary Wilson in the triple jump. As we scrambled to get scratch relay squads together we held a narrow lead over Enfield and Haringey and WSEH. If we could hold sixth spot there might be hope for the last match. But it was not to be as first the sprint relay team was disqualified and then the long relay squad were forced back to seventh in an exciting but frustrating climax.

100m: 1 J Hussain 10.85/1.9; 8 G Wilson 11.41/1.5. 200m: 7 S Osho 21.49/1.2; 4 J Hussain 21.82/1.0. 400m: 7 S Osho 48.55; 8 M Threadgold 49.18. 800m: 4 P Owor 1:50.96; 3 S Davies 1:53.15. 1500m: 2 P Owor 3:48.88; 3 J Blackledge 3:57.02. 5000m: 3 P Owor 14:32.89; 6 W Cockerell 15:47.80. 110mH: 4 D Feeney 14.34w/3.3; 6 R Aspden 17.64/0.3. 400mH: 7 R Aspden 58.52; no B competitor. 3000mSC: 8 M Morgan 10:06.47; no B competitor. HJ: 3 S Oni 2.20; =3 T Gardner 1.90. LJ: 4 B Bozhinov 7.010.8; 3 P Ogun 6.81/1.9. TJ: 3 G Wilson 14.37/0.4; 4 D Wellstead 13.91/1.5. PV: 8 D Feeney 3.80; no B competitor. SP: 6 G Beard 15.63; 2 M Wiseman M40 14.75. DT: 6 M Wiseman M40 51.97; 3 A Ekoku M40 47.65. JT: 3 J Everard 64.20; 4 C Green 55.76. HT: 7 M Richards 59.72; 8 M Wiseman 48.26. 4x100m: Belgrave dq (S Osho, W Bennett-Jackson, J Hussain, G Wilson). 4x400m: 7 Belgrave 3:19.4 (M Threadgold 49.9, J Hussain 49.0, R Aspden 50.5, D Feeney 49.9).

After three matches	League Points	Match Points
Newham & Essex Beagles	21	996
Birchfield H	21	987
Woodford Green with Essex Ladies	18	901
Shaftesbury Barnet H	14.5	818
City of Manchester	14	824
Enfield & Haringey	10	747
Belgrave H	5	651
Windsor, Slough Eton & Hounslow AC	4.5	610

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