Men's British Athletics League Division One - 2002: Match 3, Copthall

A knockout performance and looks as if it's all over !

1 Belgrave H 386; 2 Woodford Green with EL 317; 3 Birchfield H 301; 4 Trafford AC 289; 5 Shaftesbury Barnet H 272; 6 Newham & Essex Beagles 266; 7 Border H & AC 173; 8 Harrow AC 162.

Match 3 was squeezed in between the Commonwealth Games and European Championships and we were fortunate that Richard Aspden, Matt Douglas and Paul Williamson returned from Manchester and made the effort to support this key fixture. Also adding to our potential problems was an under 23 match in France which took away a further five of our regular team. Plus the absence of our top hammer men which meant we would be off to a rocky start. But it became even rockier when with 20 minutes to go we had no 400 hurdlers due to traffic hold ups. Fortunately Noel Levy just made it but Andrew Bennett didn't. Andrew made amends by running a PB in the B flat 400.

The unique sight of Kevin Brown and Lee Newman in the hammer was of interest to the opposition but resulted in few points with the result that after five events we were last and Trafford were leading. But then the track men got going with near max points from the 200 through to the 5000. Highlights were: seasons debuts from Chris Moss to win the A 800 and Richard Ward to win the B 1500 behind Spencer Barden who ran a season's best. Steve Sharp ran a big PB in the A 5000 while Paul Freary won the B. It was good to see Kevin Nash return from injury in the 3000 steeplechase while Will Cockerell ran a big PB in the B 'chase squeezing under 10 minutes for the first time.

Maximum points from Neil Owen and Richard Sear in the sprint hurdles plus a second place in the sprint relay and a win in the long relay moved us into an unassailable lead. Ben Flint gained a win over Paul Williamson in the Pole Vault to ensure near maximum points and further light between us and second placed Woodford Green.
Looking at the final scores it may be difficult to believe that the team mangers were stressed throughout the afternoon as first Stuart Faben was delayed too by traffic and only arrived as the third round of the javelin was under way. And Neil Owen didn't help by getting the start time for the sprint relay wrong. Geoff Dearman who had warmed up for the long relay virtually leaped into the lead slot to ensure a good second place. Matt Douglas fittingly concluded the day with a fine 46.9 anchor leg in the long relay to follow a good afternoon's work including a winning 21.80 B 200.

100m: A (1.6) 1 K.Ellis (Trafford) 10.63; 4 G.Beasley 10.67; B (0.3) 1 D.Donovan (Shaftesbury) 10.59; 2 M.Dickson 10.80.
200m: A (1.5) 1 G.Beasley 21.35; B (0.0) 1 M.Douglas 21.80.
400m: 1 P.Slythe (Newham) 47.21; 2 G.Dearman 47.54; B 1 R.Workman (Trafford) 48.06; 2 A.Bennett 48.33.
800m: 1 C.Moss 1:51.16; B 1 C.Reynolds (Woodford) 1:50.55; 2 A.Zawadski 1:51.41.
1500m: 1 Y.Abdi (Woodford) 3:43.68; 3 S.Barden 3:45.45; B 1 R.Ward 3:45.88.
5000m: 1 E.Kurui (Birchfield) 14:11.21; 2 S.Sharp 14:12.73; B 1 P.Freary 14:43.47.
110mH: A (-0.4) 1 N.Owen 14.47; B (-0.1) 1 R.Sear 14.59.
400mH: A 1 S.McDonnell (Shaftesbury) 52.11; 3 N.Levy 52.60; B no Belgrave competitor.
3000mSC: A 1 E.Kurui (Birchfield) 8:56.86; 5 K.Nash 9:17.33; B 1 D.Lewis (Shaftesbury) 9:19.15; 5 W.Cockerell 9:58.29.
HJ: A =1 M.Mandy (Birchfield) and R.Mitchell (Shaftesbury) 2.00; 4 R.Aspden 2.00; B 1 B.Smith (Shaftesbury) 2.00; 4 J.Tuson 1.90.
LJ: A 1 P.Ralph (Trafford) 6.99/-0.4; 3 J.Flynn 6.87/0.2; B 1 S.Alexander (Trafford) 13.96/-0.2; 4 F.Daramola 6.30/-1.4.
TJ: A 1 L.Achike (Shaftesbury) 14.86/-0.9; 3 F.Daramola 14.18/-0.5; B 1 L.Harvey (Trafford) 13.96/-1.0; 2 D.Wellstead 13.77/-1.4.
PV:A 1 C.North (Woodford) 5.10; 2 B.Flint 5.10; B 1 P.Williamson 5.00.
SP: A 1 E.Udechuku (Woodford) 17.31; 4 L.Newman 16.44; B 1 G.Beard 16.28.
DT:A 1 R.Weir (Birchfield) 58.77; 3 K.Brown 53.90; B 1 G.Smith (Birchfield) 56.57; 2 L.Newman 51.58.
JT: A 1 M.Roberson (Newham) 69.31; 2 S.Faben 67.09; B 1 J.Lundman (Newham) 58.49; 2 C.Green 58.43.
HT: 1 I.Nikulin (Birchfield) 67.11; 8 L.Newman 39.34; B 1 S.Brown (Newham) 63.94; 7 K.Brown 37.03.
4x100m: 1 Newham 41.33; 2 Belgrave 41.40 (N.Owen, G.Beasley, M.Douglas, M.Dickson).
4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:14.81 (N.Levy, C.Moss, M.Douglas, G.Dearman).

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