Track & Field - Olympic Games - Athens 2004: Friday 20 August
Men's Triple Jump - qualifying round Result
17.00 metres in the qualifying round was the requirement for a certain place in the triple jump final and Phillips Idowu did this in style, leaping 17.33m into a 1.2 headwind with his very first attempt. At the end of this preliminary competition the Belgrave man was 4th best from the two qualifying pools. Also into the final was Belgrave's Julien Kapek, representing France, whose 16.91m came in the third round and gave him the last available slot in the 12-man final.
Men's 400 metres - heats Result
With Daniel Caines and Malachi Davis both unable to do enough to progress to the semi-finals, British hopes centred on Belgrave's Tim Benjamin as the last of the eight heats got under way. With only the first two in each heat plus the eight fastest losers earning the right to compete the next day, Tim was going to have to run right up to form to make the grade. Drawn in lane three with his French rival Leslie Djhone just outside, Tim fought hard, holding third place in a tightly contested race. Less than three tenths of a second covered the leading positions and happily it was soon reported that Tim had qualified as a fastest loser.
Tim revealed that he had suffered a hamstring injury while training at the GB holding camp in Cyprus and had been forced to rest coming into the Games. "I have not trained for a week so tonight was a bit of a shock to the system. I can still feel it but it is not enough to stop me running. I will give it my absolute best in the semi finals."
Women's 800 metres - heats Result
There were six heats for the women's 800 metres and while many British eyes were on Kelly Holmes and Jo Fenn, Belgrave fans had the additional thrill of seeing the first ever female Belgravian taking part in Olympic competition. Tamsyn Lewis found herself in a loaded heat three along with Holmes, Jearle Miles Clark (USA) and Letitia Vriesde (SUR). Tamsyn was going have to be very close to her season's best of 2:02.93 to have any chance of progressing. The Aussie girl gave it everything - and not only ran up to her recent best but exceeded it as she clocked 2:02.67 to break her own Belgrave record. Sadly, in spite of this, she was only 5th home in this hot race and although faster than any of the qualifiers by right in two of the other heats, found herself one of the fastest runners NOT to go into the semi-finals.
Women's Discus - qualifying round Result
Discus thrower Shelley Newman found that it was not to be her day - or should we say night, as her qualifying pool for the discus were still in action as midnight approached. It would have taken a considerable improvement on her best ever throw to make the final with 62.50m being the target. Shelley's personal record is 61.22m, set in 2003, with a best this season of 60.34m. As it was, she started with a "no throw" and could only reach a best of 56.04m on her last effort. With the TV cameras concentrating on that last effort, she could only smile afterwards and mouth the word "terrible".
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.