National Junior League 2003: Match 3 Guildford
Juniors place third with best points scored.
1 Windsor SE&H 258; 2 Hillingdon 173; 3 Belgrave H 165; 4 Oxford City 103; 5 London Heathside 100; 6 Thames Valley H 66.
Nine competitors turned out for the penultimate match of the season and mustered their highest points so far, 165 points, showing what can be achieved when more of the events are covered. On this occasion it was sprinters and hurdlers who were in short supply which affected individual events and relays alike. Anthony Adebo was the sole representative in the short sprints, clocking 11.9 seconds in fourth. In the 400m Set Osho, drawn on the inside lane, passed four of his rivals in the first 100m and was unofficially timed at 23.2 for 200m ! It was hard work from then on and Michael Williams of Havant just failed in his bold bid to catch him, clocking the same time (50.4) but was rewarded by gaining the Match 2 ‘Man of the Match award’ for this performance.
A similar situation occurred in the 800m B race where Jamie MacRae narrowly failed to catch a tiring Windsor runner who had taken off at the bell.
In the combined A and B 1500m race Jamie and Mark Humphries, making his league debut, decided to race each other. Mark’s finishing burst in the final straight almost took Jamie on the line, finishing just one-fifth second behind but with 2nd B race position to his credit. In the field Roy Collier surprised everyone with an impressive pb in the javelin of 36.44 metres which gave him second place, just one metre or so behind the winner. A surprise in this event was also in store for Kyle Stevens who, throwing the spear competitively for the first time, bettered 30 metres to give him third spot in the ‘B’. Kyle had taken a fortnight’s break from training but was still 6 metres clear of the runner-up in the hammer. He won the ‘B’ shot and was second in the ‘B’ discus as well. Chris Gearing, who placed eighth in the shot final at the World Youth Championships in Canada recently, threw his first, and best, effort 16.62 metres, and also saw off the opposition in the discus.
Paul Cowling contributed valuable points with his efforts in the 800m, long jump and relay, and Charles Davis, making his debut, competed in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay.
100m: 4 A.Adebo 11.9. 200m: 5 A.Adebo 23.8. 400m: 1 S.Osho 50.4; 2 C.Davis U17 60.4. 800m: 4 P.Cowling 2:26.2; 2 J.MacRae U17 2:08.4. 1500m: 4 J.MacRae U17 4:38.6; 1 M.Humphries 4:38.8. 3000m 3 M Humphries 10:17.0. HJ: 5 R.Collier U17 1.60; 4 J. MacRae 1.45. LJ: 4 R.Collier U17 5.54; 2 P.Cowling U17 5.21 SP: (6.25kg) 1 C.Gearing U17 16.62; 1 (6.0kg) K.Stevens 12.70. DT: 1 C.Gearing U17 42.45; 2 K.Stevens 28.44 JT: 2 R.Collier U17 36.44 3 K.Stevens 30.29 HT: 1 K.Stevens 48.94. 4x100m: 5 Belgrave 47.4 (C.Davis, A Adebo, C.Gearing, S.Osho). 4x400m: / Belgrave 4:00.8 (P.Cowling 61.0, J.MacRae 58.4, C.Davis 63.2, R Collier 58.2).
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.