Women's Southern League 2003: Match 1, Exeter

1 Exeter 195.5; 2 Guildford & Godalming 177; 3 Walton 150; 4 Epsom & Ewell 142.5; 5 Belgrave 141.

Welcome to the new track season

Eight hours of coach travel, four hours of competition with three prolonged heavy showers – welcome to the new track & field season.

The team was rather short of under-15 girls and distance runners but nevertheless accumulated 141 points, 121 of which were contributed by the Seniors who would have won convincingly had this competition been scored separately. Exeter Harriers who were fourth last year started as firm favourites and duly won with 195.5 points. Guildford and Godalming also had a good day with 177 points leaving the remaining three clubs, including ourselves, grouped together.

In the Girls competition, Holly Gates and Emily Collins ran very respectable times but were up against good opposition in both the short sprints. Holly with 13.9/29.2 was fourth in both the A races and Emily, looking a much stronger runner these days, clocked 14.1/29.6 in the B races. Shana Kemp had a busy afternoon, coming 3rd in the 75mH (13.5), 3rd in the discus (14.59) and also put the shot with Maisie Collins, where both became rednecks - the new batch of shots was shedding paint - Rex the Retriever ended up with red paws and the sector looked rather artistic with its red spots.

The seniors started well with multi-eventer Hannah Stares winning the lap hurdles in 61.3. She later won the sprint hurdles just as convincingly (14.6), and then tackled the 800m B which she paced to perfection to win. Hannah also won the javelin B (26.81), where Maureen Knight came second in the A competition with 35.75 metres to contribute to her afternoon of points collection. Maureen won the 100mH B (15.5), shot (11.65) and long jump (5.22), an exciting competition where just 7 cms separated the first 5, including Michelle Nestor who was second in the B with 5.15 metres.

Amala Onuora was in good form with a 12.2 win in the 100m and 25.5 for 2nd in the 200m. She also ran the anchor leg in the sprint relay and made a bold bid to snatch second place. Her trademark finishing dip was enough to match the same time as the second team (51.7) but did not get the verdict. Fran Gregory and Toks Hassan gave good support to Amala, Toks clocking the same time in the 200m B race as the winner, Helen Williams, one of the Walton triplets.

Shelley Newman was fourth in the hammer (26.61) and second in the B shot (10.96) but let us know that she is the UK No 1 in the discus with 54.65 metres. She gave the officials plenty of exercise in retrieving her implement – in one of her attempts the platter skimmed within 10 metres of the javelin runway arc at the other end, proving that you can’t hold the two events at the same time !

A semi-injured Jacqui Smiter competed in her usual variety of events to keep the points tally moving - the 1500, 3000, 400mH B and her best of the day, the pole vault, where she cleared 1.80 to take 2nd place in the B competition.

Louise Collier was below par for the 800 but decided this was her one-lap day as she won the B 400 convincingly (60.8), an event in which Caroline Wilson came third in the A race, dipping under the minute. Louise ran a scorching leg of the 400 relay where in a thrilling finale the team came second with 4:12.7, ‘Hannah the Ancha’ needing an extra 50 metres of track to overhaul the winner.

The team then boarded the coach for the long haul back home. Those of us who stayed awake enjoyed some wonderful scenery in the evening sunshine from the A30 between Honiton and Ilminster. We were then accompanied by a very bright rainbow for half an hour until we reached Stonehenge.

Senior Women.

100m: 1 A.Onuora U20 12.2; 3 F.Gregory U17 13.3; n/s S.Murray-Burton U20 14.0. 200m: 2 A.Onuora U20 25.5; 2 T.Hassan U17 26.0. 400m: 3 C.Wilson U20 59.6; 1 L.Collier U17 60.8. 800m: 3 L.Collier U17 2:27.3; 1 H.Stares 2:29.8. 1500m: 5 S.Collins 6:40.4; 3 M.Taylor-Gates 8:06.8. 3000m: 4 J.Smiter 15:07.5. 100mH: 1 H.Stares 14.6; 1 M.Knight 15.5. 400mH: 1 H.Stares 61.3; 3 J.Smiter 92.7. HJ: 2 M.Knight 1.55; 2 M.Nestor U20 1.45. LJ: 1 M.Knight 5.22; 2 M.Nestor U20 5.15. TJ: 2 M.Nestor U20 10.51; 4 J.Smiter 7.98. PV: 1 L.Webber 3.30; 2 J.Smiter 1.80. SP: 2 M.Knight 11.65; 2 S.Newman 10.96. DT: 1 S.Newman 54.65; 5 L.Webber 15.19. JT: 2 M.Knight 35.75; 1 H.Stares 26.61. HT: 4 S.Newman 26.61; 5 K.Collier 13.00. 4x100m:3 Belgrave 51.7 (F.Gregory U17, T.Hassan U17, S.Murray-Burton U20, A.Onuora U20). 4x400m: 2 Belgrave 4:12.7 (L.Collier U17, C.Wilson U20, F.Gregory U17, H.Stares).

Under 15 Girls

100m: 4 H.Gates 13.9; 3 E.Collins 14.1. 200m: 4 H.Gates 29.2; 4 E.Collins 29.6. 75mH: 3 S.Kemp 13.5. LJ: 5 H.Gates 3.77; 5 M.Collins 1.94. SP: 5 S.Kemp 6.04; 5 M.Collins 3.39. DT: 3 S.Kemp 14.59. 4x100m: 5 Belgrave 60.8 (M.Collins, E.Collins, S.Kemp, H.Gates).

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