Victory '5', Portsmouth

Forty to fifty mile an hour squalls made for an interesting race at Portsmouth where the leaders ran nearly 6 minutes for the last mile. Phil Wicks' preparations for the race were turned upside down when a late arrival meant that he only had time for a 400m jog before the start. Willard Chinhanhu of Poole attempted an early break but Phil was in the bunch as the field set out along the waterfront with the wind behind them. Geele, Robinson and Mitchison were all prominent for the Beagles with our own Malachi Byansi, John Kimaiyo and Knut Hegvold also well forward.

But those windy conditions meant that whatever happened on the outward journey, the whole field was going to concertina at the end - and it did - with five men coming together at the 4 mile point in 19 minutes. Chinhanhu and Geele arrived back at the track together but were being chased hard by the next three and we had the first five all on the finish straight at the same time.

The wind had made a mockery of the times but there was no doubt that it was a terrific run from Phil who was just three seconds down on Andy Robinson and ahead of Dave Mitchison (both Beagles) and Cole (Medway & Maidstone). It was another good effort from Mal Byansi who had John Kimaiyo, a good six inches taller, trying to shelter behind him on the return. Knut had a powerful finish to overtake JK to become our third scorer and take second veteran's prize.

It was good to see Mark Miles there - he was working with the race sponsors - and happy to report that he has now shaken off his nagging cold and chest infection and is back to running.

Men. 1 W Chinhanhu (Poole) 24:50; 2 M Geele (Newham &EB) 24:51; 3 T Payne (Birchfield) 24:54; 5 P Wicks 25:01; 16 M Byansi 26:49; 23 K Hegvold M45 2-Vet 27:55; 24 J Kimaiyo 27:59; 44 D Mason 28:52; 68 M Humphrey 29:56.

Teams: 1 Newham &EB 25; 2 Belgrave 68; 3 Winchester 71.

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