Men's Southern League 2001: Match 3, Tooting

With the fixture almost at “home”, one would have thought that we might have fared better but somehow things didn’t work out. Sadly we once again had no steeplechasers and coupled with blank pole vault, high hurdles and 4x400 metres slots on the team sheet, it was surprising that we managed to place 3rd as a team.

The throws were good with Mike Small notching up three ‘B’ wins and an ‘A’ second and Mike and Heri Ziska teamed up for a rare double win in the discus. An unusual sight was hammer thrower John Osazuwa being reduced to a mere 2nd in Southern League competition in spite of a 58m+ throw.

A double first also came in the triple jump thanks to Ezra Clarke and James Hilston and whilst not winning, the versatile James leaped an impressive 2 metres in the high jump. James Tuson and Alex Kneller ensured that we placed no lower than 2nd in high, long and triple jumps.

The middle-distance boys did particularly well. Knut Hegvold patiently tracked Herne Hill’s Andy Weir for almost the entire 5000 metres before moving up a gear on the last lap for a comfortable win. Knut turns 40 any time now and one of the Norwegian’s targets is a 2:20 marathon. Will Cockerell made it a maximum-pointer by winning the B event. At 1500 metres Joachim Wolf set an honest pace with Peters (HHH) and Rob McHarg in close attendance. Peters levered open a 5 metre gap on the last bend but then Rob, always a fighter, came back to all but steal it on the line. Strong running also came from Kevin Quinn in the 800m but again Peters prevailed.

Teams: 1 Herne Hill H 122; 2 Basildon 119; 3 Belgrave 100; 4 Woodford Green 95; 5 Team Solent 77.

100m: 4 D.Akinbogun 11.2; 5 J.Hilston 11.4. 200m: 5 D.Akinbogun 22.8; 5 G.Ross 24.3. 400m: 4 J.Panton 54.1. 800m: 2 K.Quinn 2:00.0; 3 L.Greatorex 2:04.0. 1500m: 1 K.Hegvold 15:23.0; 1 W.Cockerell 16:17.1. 400mH: 5 R.Smith 61.6; 4 J.Panton 71.0. HJ: 2 J.Hilston 2.00; 2 J.Tuson 1.90. LJ: 2 J.Tuson 6.48; 1 A.Kneller 6.17. TJ: 1 E.Clarke 14.08; 1 J.Hilston 13.72. SP: 2 M.Small 13.20; 1 J.Osazuwa 11.77. DT: 1 H.Ziska 44.23; 1 M.Small 40.40. JT: 5 A.Kneller 43.95; 1 M.Small 43.05. HT: 2 J.Osazuwa 58.34; 1 M.Small 45.24. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 43.4 (D.Akinbogun, M.Dickson, J.Hilston, R.David).

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