National Junior League 2003: Match 4 Battersea Park

At last - A home win for Juniors in final match

1 Belgrave 234; 2 Windsor SE&H 232; 3 Hillingdon 197; 4 London Heathside 136; 5 Thames Valley H 73.

Team manager Gerry Sprigings capped his first season in charge of the Junior Men's team with strong performances in most departments which culminated in a fine win to end the season. Kyle Stevens set the standard in the first event, the hammer, his pb of 51.79 metres earning him the Athlete of the Match award. He just edged out Onen Eyong who leapt a staggering 7.26 metres in the long jump, an event in which Gary Wilson won the B with an almost equally impressive 6.83 metres. In the 100 metres James Ellington and Lawrence Oboh notched up sub 11 second times running into a headwind and James teamed up with a rapidly improving Anthony Adebo to score maximum points in the 200 metres. Ryan Dinham showed good recovery from injury clocking 15.39 in the 110m hurdles; his anchor leg in the 4 x 400m relay was also a bit special, making up a large deficit to take the Aldershot runner on the line. The other members of the quartet, Roy Collier, Anthony Adebo and Jon Regis ran themselves to exhaustion to give him his chance of glory, spurred on by the loudest support of the day from a good turnout of home supporters. A little earlier in the afternoon, the 4 x 100m relay was won in 43.84 just outside the 43.7 seconds (hand timed) clocked at Eton in the second match with an almost completely different squad - which speaks volumes for the depths of sprint talent in the junior ranks at present. Jonathan Blackledge was in good spirits, having just achieved three 'A's in his A levels. His sub-4 minutes 1500 metres was a race against the clock, with the second runner half a lap behind when Jon crossed the line, but he was probably disappointed that he did not have an opportunity to avenge the defeat by his Hampshire rival David Udal at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix nine days earlier in a Junior 3,000 metres race - the Aldershot runner contented himself with a leg of the 4 x 400m.

100m: 1 J.Ellington 10.93/-1.6; 1 L.Oboh 10.99/-1.6. 200m: 1 J.Ellington 23.19/-2.1; 1 A.Adebo 24.01/-2.1. 400m: 2 J.Regis 56.85; 2 A.Adebo 53.71. 800m: 4 J.Miller 2:12.33. 1500m: 1 J.Blackledge 3:58.58; 2 P.Cowling U17 5:17.86. 110mH: 1 R.Dinham 15.39/+1.7. 400mH: 2 C.Davis U17 69.9; 2 P.Cowling U17 70.12. 2000mSC: 3 J.Miller 8:35.1; 3 C.Davis U17 9:48.1. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 43.84. 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:36.78 (R.Collier U17 57.3, A.Adebo 53.8, J.Regis 53.9, R.Dinham 51.8). LJ: 1 O.Eyong 7.26; 1 G.Wilson 6.83. HJ: 5 O.Eyong 1.50; 3 G.Wilson 1.45. TJ: 3 A.George 11.89; 3 J.Miller 9.73. SP: 1 K.Stevens 14.59; 2 R.Collier U17 9.46. DT: 1 K.Stevens 38.82; 3 R.Collier U17 15.32. JT: 3 R.Collier U17 35.18; 1 K.Stevens 32.39. HT: 1 K.Stevens 51.79; 3 P.Cowling U17 13.48.

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