UK Women's Athletics League 2005: Match 2, Stoke
Promotion beckons
The long haul to Stoke and some dubious overnight accommodation did nothing to discourage the team who posted another convincing win. With just the one match to go now there would have to be an almighty disaster to halt the Belles' bid for promotion to division three in 2006.
Once again Hannah Stares set the tempo for the afternoon with a win in the opening track event - the 400 metre hurdles. Then, teaming up with fellow multi-eventer Julie Hollman, these two covered the sprint hurdles and high jump to pull in more maximum points. At this point Julie moved to the throws where yet another win came in the shot.
Double wins came in the horizontal jumps, Sarah Wellstead taking both A events with good backing from Michelle Nestor in the triple (a season's best) and Katryna Euridge in the long.
The flat 400 metres saw Captain Jennifer Culley powerfully sweeping up the field: as SEAA champion over the 400 hurdles surely she will smash the 60 seconds for her speciality, given the right conditions.
Claire Robinson is so solid over two laps, always turning out something in the 2:10-2:11 area, and this occasion was no different in spite of the fact that she'd run a best of 2:09.98 at Solihull in the BMC meet less than 24 hours earlier. A best ever 800 metres also came from Chrissie Foster who lost touch with the leader but finished strongly to claw back all but half a metre by the finish line. In the 1500m Birhan Dagne set off a little more cautiously than she did in match 1, this time stretching away to a good win - in spite having placed 5th in the AAA 5k Championship that very morning.
And so to the relays. In the 4x100 TVH turned out a powerful quartette that proved to be 15 metres too good for us, but come the long race and the Belles finished off the day as they started - clear winners.
100m: 4 J Culley 12.8/-2.5; 2 K Euridge 13.0/-0.6. 200m: 6 R Lewis 26.9/-0.8; 2 C Foster 27.0/-1.9. 400m: 1 J Culley 56.1; 4 S Gailey 60.6. 800m: 3 C Robinson 2:11.3; 2 C Foster 2:15.4. 1500m: 1 B Dagne 4:39.5; 3 R Powell 5:02.0. 3000m: 4 S Gailey 11:33.2. 100mH: 1 J Hollman 14.5/-2.4; 1 H Stares 14.7/-0.6. 400mH: 1 H Stares 60.3; 5 V Goodwin 75.6. LJ: 1 S Wellstead 5.74; 1 K Euridge 5.52. HJ: 1 J Hollman 1.80; 1 H Stares 1.60. TJ: 1 S Wellstead 11.59; 1 M Nestor 11.31. PV: 2 J Searle 2.80. SP: 1 J Hollman 12.35; 2 L Fox 9.57. DT: 3 L Fox 36.79; 1 J Loney 34.84. JT: 7 J Loney 20.90; 4 H Mead 18.58. HT: 4 J Loney 40.51; 5 H Mead 17.35. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 49.8 (R Lewis, H Stares, S Wellstead, K Euridge). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 3:51.2 (J Culley 57.4, R Lewis 60.2, C Robinson 57.0, J Hollman 56.6).
1 Belgrave 224; 2 City of Stoke 163; 3 Thames Valley 161; 4 Blackheath & Bromley 158; 5 Medway and Maidstone 155; 6 Herts Phoenix 140; 7 Kingston Upon Hull 122; Radley withdrew.
Standings: 1 Belgrave 16; 2 Blackheath and Bromley 12; 3 City of Stoke 12; 4 Thames Valley 11; 5 Herts Phoenix 9; 6 Medway & Maidstone 7; 8 Kingston upon Hull 4; 8 Radley 1.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.