Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2002: Match 2, Birmingham

Track boys swing it Belgrave's way again

1 Belgrave H 382; 2 Newham and Essex Beagles 345; 3 Birchfield H 340; 4 Woodford Green with EL 305; 5 Trafford AC 242; 6 Shaftesbury Barnet H 210; 7 Border H & AC 187; 8 Harrow AC 161.

Another match, another format. Billed as a domestic Grand Prix and supported by UK Athletics with prize money and guests in certain events we waited to see how the fixture and our fortunes would pan out. After match 1, where we sneaked a last gasp win, we feared Newham, who have the desire and ability to beat all but our very best team. Missing for the first time in 4 years as he opened his son's school fete was Mick Jones so usual key points would be lost in the hammer. Added to this an injury to pole vault supremo Paul Williamson plus a total loss of our top steeplechasers meant that we would have at least three duff events. Would our increasing strength on the track and our remaining throwers be enough to defeat the opposition?

Well yes. A series of truly dominating performances from 100m to 5000m contributed to a clear win which put us in a slightly more comfortable lead as we chase a sixth consecutive and record breaking League victory.
Highlights of a sries of top rate performances were Andy Graffin's gun to tape charge in the A 800. Adam Zawadski got caught up in traffic jams on the M6 and being a fairly local lad arrived only 15minutes before the A 800 and ran a pb in his first 800 of the season. An A and B max points win echoed by Steve Sharp and Spencer Barden in the 1500. Plus near max points in the 5000 to follow. Paul Evans took the race out to be caught by Kirui but his A silver was followed by a B gold and a big pb by Alaster Stewart. Brilliant stuff.

In the short hurdles Neil Owen was close to beating Commonwealth bound Damian Greaves while Dominic Girdler ensured more good points with a B win. In the long hurdles Matt Douglas experimented with a new stride pattern from 7 and tied up badly to succumb to a 49.4 win by WG's Kemel Thompson (Jamaican) who finished 6th in the last Commonwealth Games. In the 200 Graham Beasley again won the A and Tim Abeyie claimed the famous scalp of former Belgravian Chris Rawlinson who now competes for Trafford.

But it was the 400 that set the pulses racing. On the start line Sean Baldock faced no less an adversary than Iwan Thomas seeking proof of a return to fitness prior to next week's AAA's. And it was Sean hitting the lead at 200 who held on well for a stunning victory in a sub 46 timing which was his fastest since the Sydney Olympics. He followed this with a 45.5 split in the long relay. A great afternoon's work!

In general the jumps were below par but Ben Challenger cleared 2.20 to win the A high jump and prove once again that when he puts on a Belgrave vest you can expect something special. One of his 2.26 attempts was pretty close. But it was the triple jump that yielded the biggest surprise. Last year junior Davis Welstead won the B and was headed by promising junior Seni Mayekodunmi who contributed to a 20 points total out of a max 28 for this event.
So a clear win. The debate on the new format started as soon as the last event finished. With the inclusion of guests and prize money down to third place in most events this could be the league format of the future. Or is this another false dawn?

For Grand Prix events actual positions shown in brackets.

100m: A 1 T.Edgar (Woodford) 10.41; 3 D.Chin 10.75/-1.9 (1rB); B 1 M.Dickson 10.75/-1.9 (2rB); gst T.Abeyie 10.86/-1.9 (4rB).

200m: A 1 G.Beasley 21.44/-0.5 (2rA); B 1 T.Comyns (Border) 21.73; 4 T.Abeyie 21.76/-0.5 (4rA); gst D.Chin 21.63/-1.2 (1rB).

400m: A 1 S.Baldock 45.92 (1rA); B 1 M.Brown (Newham) 46.86; 3 T.Bayley 48.71 (8rA); gst G.Dearman 49.83 (6rB); A.Bennett 48.83 (1rC).

800m: A 1 Andy Graffin 1:49.03 (1rA); B 1 A.Zawadski 1:50.54 (5rA).

1500m: A 1 S.Sharp 3:52.10; B 1 S.Barden 3:53.00.

5000m: A 1 E.Kerui (Birchfield) 14:18.12; 2 Paul Evans 14:30.11; B 1 Alaster Stewart 14:39.22.

110mH: A 1 D.Greaves (Newham) 13.80; 2 N.Owen 13.91/-0.5 (4rA); B 1 D.Girdler 14.12/-0.5 (7rA); gst R.Sear 14.67/-0.2 (3rB).

400mH: A 1 K.Thompson (Woodford) 49.44; 2 M.Douglas 50.01 (2rA); B 1 N.Levy 51.55 (5rA).

3000mSC: 1 E.Kerui (Birchfield) 8:51.39; 8 W.Cockerell 10:22.75; B 1 E.Malloch (Shaftesbury) 9:27.9; 7 I.Wells 12:10.93.

HJ: 1 B.Challenger 2.20; B 1 D.Plank (Birchfield) 1.95; 2 R.Aspden 1.95.

LJ: 1 C.Tomlinson (Newham) 7.66; 4 J.Flynn 6.77; B 1 S.Faulkner (Birchfield) 6.96; 3 F.Daramola 6.52.

TJ: 1 C.Madeira-Cole (Newham) 15.43; 5 S.Majekodunmi 14.12; B 1 D.Wellstead 13.98.

PV: 1 C.North (Woodford) 5.20; 4 B.Flint 4.80; B 1 S.Simpson (Birchfield); no Belgrave competitor.

SP: 1 M.Proctor 17.55; 4 G.Beard 15.73; B 1 B.Kelly (Trafford) 16.36; 2 D.Readle 15.61; gst S.Thompson 15.56.

DT: 1 R.Weir (Birchfield) 55.24; 3 K.Brown 52.16; B 1 G.Smith (Birchfield) 53.70; 2 L.Newman 50.89.

JT: 1 N.Nieland (Shaftesbury) 72.46; 3 S.Faben 66.53; B 1 P.Howard (Woodford) 60.09; 4 W.Smith 57.19.

HT: 1 I Nichulin (Birchfield) 69.60; 5 J.Osazuwa 57.85; B 1 S.Brown (Newham) 63.61; 5 S.Thompson 45.94.

4x100m: 1 Birchfield 40.39; 2 Belgrave 41.33 (M.Dickson, G.Beasley, T.Abeyie, D.Chinn).

4x400m: 1 Newham 3:09.78; 3 Belgrave 3:11.07 (N.Levy, A.Bennett, T.Bayley, S.Baldock).

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