UK Women's Athletics League Division Four - 2004: Match 2, Scunthorpe

Bravo Birhan

1 Kingston upon Hull 199.5; 2 Havering Mayesbrook 193.5; 3 City of Stoke 189; 4 Belgrave 171.5; 5 Cardiff 156; 6 Radley 150.5; Pitreavie and Bournemouth did not take part.

After a lacklustre opening match there were plenty of promises to turn out for match two but in the days leading up to the meeting the team managers went from hope to utter despondency when it appeared that not only could we not turn out a team to do ourselves justice - we were unlikely to be able to find enough athletes to cover the minimum number of events required by the rules of the UKWL. Thanks to alternate competition and injuries, far from looking for early promotion, we were facing the possibility of a return to the league qualifying match. Even those taking part were restricted because in this league, athletes can not do more than three events plus relays.

The call went out to members old, members as yet untried and members totally unfit - in fact any female Belgravian prepared to don racing strip. Birhan Dagne flew in from a Friday race in Germany, Gail Porter shrugged off illness, two lapper Sarah Gailey “volunteered” for three sprints instead of her preferred event, Liz Horrobin was press-ganged while spectating at the previous day’s men’s match and ended up doing three individual events and two relays, and gradually enough events were covered to pass the minimum mark. Not only that, with a sprinkling of front line troops, it also began to look as if we might not finish last!

In fact everyone who turned up competed magnificently. There might have been a few performances which the owners would prefer not to appear in the ranking lists, but the points began to pile up.

Hannah Stares started the track session going with a win in the 400m hurdles while Diana Holden was doing a demolition job on the hammer field. Trying to overcome a hamstring injury, Jennifer Culley was reduced to a single outing over one lap - but again she won. The discus gave good points with a win from Laura Fox, backed up well by Diana, and as it turned out the throws were particularly good for us as Eva Massey and Laura Fox gave us our only double win of the day - in the shot.

As we have already recorded, Birhan Dagne had come straight from Germany where she had run a 16:29 5k in poor conditions. She set off in the 5000m in determined fashion and it immediately became obvious that the division record was under threat. The first kilometre came up in 3:15, the second in 6:31, and so it went on until she crossed the line in 16:41.3 to take the best part of a minute off the old record. Someone who had the benefit of watching Birhan from close quarters was Catherine Eastham, lapped three times by our winner and receiving encouragement from her each time she came past. It was a hard run for someone not expecting to have to cover such an event but her efforts paid off and due to missing competitors from other teams, second in the B event came her way.

Birhan was into team mode now and her offer to run in the 1500m was snapped up. Her powerful front running over an unusually short distance (for her) enabled her to beat the outstanding young middle-distance runner from Stoke - Emma Ward. With Cardiff having a bad day, team managers Bob and Cynthia suddenly began to see the chance of the season being salvaged. Somehow two relay teams were mustered from those still standing - including another run from Birhan on first leg in the 4x400m.

Now, can we still pull off our original aim of achieving promotion? There are countless possible mathematical combinations but just take a look at this one: If we could turn out the sort of team that we do for the cup and win the final match at Abingdon on July 31st, and if Cardiff were to place second but 53 match points behind us we'd gain promotion. Of course, Cardiff could finish further back than 2nd - but then we might not win either. It will be a nail-biting finish to our first season in the UKWL.

100m: 6 S.Gailey 13.5w/2.3; 6 L.Horrobin 15.5. 200m: 6 S.Gailey 28.4w/2.2. 400m: 1 J.Culley 57.5; 3 S.Gailey 63.3. 800m: 6 L.Horrobin 2:34.4; 6 C.Eastham 3:00.3. 1500m: 1 B.Dagne 4:31.8; 3 L.Horrobin 5:14.7. 5000m: 1 B.Dagne 16:41.3 (Division Record); 2 C.Eastham 23:28.1. 100mH 2 H.Stares 14.4/1.8; 4 G.Porter 22.0. 400mH: 1 H.Stares 61.1. HJ: =4 H.Stares 1.50. 2 M.Nestor 1.45. LJ: 5 M.Nestor 4.87; 5 H.Mead 2.93. TJ: 4 M.Nestor 10.10/0.2. SP: 1 E.Massey 15.56; 1 L.Fox 10.67. DT: 1 L.Fox 38.52; 2 D.Holden 30.97. JT: 3 G.Porter 28.41; 6 H.Mead 20.08. HT: 1 D.Holden 49.73; 3 G.Porter 26.76. 4x100m: 6 Belgrave (G.Porter, L.Horrobin, S.Gailey, H.Stares). 4x400m: 5 Belgrave 4:30.8 (B.Dagne 64.0, C.Eastham 78.6, L.Horrobin 66.8, H.Stares 61.4).

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