Words by team managers Orna McGinley and Mike Burslem

Belgrave Harriers shone on their return to the National Athletics League Championship, placing third behind a very strong Cardiff team and the hosts, Bedford & County.

Following last season’s promotion, the pressure was on the team to perform at a higher level in their bid to consolidate their place in the division. The competition was noticeably stronger in all events, and the weather conditions were tough, but everyone rose to the occasion.

The feats of Belgrave’s runners are regularly featured on our website. But the club is on the hunt for greater depth in the field events, so we lead our report with these disciplines.

Jumping for joy

In the NAL, clubs enter athletes into ‘A’ and ‘B’ categories, and receive points accordingly.

In the high jump, Grace Johnson and Georgia Patterson both took 4th in the A and B events respectively. In the long jump we saw the return of our world masters champ and multi-events specialist, Jodie Albrow, who teamed up with Georgia. Again there was some tough competition, with the Women’s field being particularly strong, but 7th in the A for Jodie and 6th in the B for Georgia earned some more valuable points.

The triple saw Tayla Benson and Orna McGinley jump to more solid points. Tayla jumped an impressive 10.43m in the A category for 6th, while Orna did 8.20m for 5th in the B event.

In the men’s long jump, Mikael Lurot leapt to 6.32m for 7th, leaving him only 40cm of 2nd. In the triple jump we had an athlete making their debut in the event (at least since school).

Ben Ringrose-Voase, not content with his 800m performance earlier in the day, decided to “have a go” at it and see. While he did come 8th in the event, he recorded a respectable 11.18m with some coaching from Tony Ganio.

Unfortunately we did not have anyone for the pole vault, an event that offers the club a real points haul. Coaching (and poles) will soon be available in this discipline.

The story was similar in the high jump for men, but Grace has volunteered to give some training to anyone keen. Please contact the club if you are interested in competing in these areas - beginners are welcome!

Throwers required

Lina Shkier was our sole representative in the hammer, with a throw of 20.62m for 8th in the A category. Hopefully we can get someone to back up Lina for the next match as the B event only had 4 competitors, and we would encourage any of our female athletes who are keen to try the event to speak to coach Chris Privet.

In the shot putt Jodie, this time joined by Orna - perhaps a new field events specialist - took on a high quality field. Nevertheless, it was 7th place for Jodie in 9.38m in the A category and 5th for Orna with 7.14m in the B.

The discus saw second events for both Lina and Grace producing some more respectable points hauls, with Lina taking 6th in the A with a throw of 21.46m, while Grace was 5th in the B with 14.23m.

In the final throw of the day, the javelin, it was back to our 2 long jumpers Jodie and Georgia again. Jodie threw her javelin to 30.86m for 6th in the A, and Georgia backed this up with 18.59m for 5th in the B.

Our women put on a great team performance, with a lot of athletes stepping into events that they don’t train for.

Our male throwing contingent was a much more recognisable line-up for their respective events.

The discus was up first, with Peter Mayfield joined by James Tuffnel in a very strong field. Pete took 4th in the A with a throw of 34.28m, while James took 3rd in the B with 32.21m.

The hammer was next, with masters (and coaches) Chris Privet and Pete showing the young ones how it’s done with 32.60m (3rd in A) and 29.94m (2nd in B) respectively.

Pete was soon back for his 3rd throw of the day in the shot putt, joined by Tom Ikeda. Tom secured a 6th place finish in the A event, after a 3rd round throw of 10.07m lifted him up from 8th, while Pete was not far behind with 9.74m for 3rd in the B category.

The javelin rounded off the throws. Tom was joined by hurdler extraordinaire, Valentin Rigori. Tom threw a fantastic 38.02 for 4th in the A, while Val pulled out a PB of 35.57m for 2nd in the B event.

A tough day for the sprinters

In the 100m we saw debutant Miram Glassner step into the A race with Amy Mat in the B. Miriam sadly pulled her hamstring towards the end of the race, while Amy is still coming back to fitness. Both finished 8th in their races, but as ever, there was some very tough competition in the sprints.

In the 200m Tayla took 5th in the A race in a great time of 26.23, while Rachel Donnison took 4th in the B, in a time of 26.76. This was only 30 minutes after she had run the 400m B race where Rachel was 2nd in 58.45. The A race was our Welsh international, Sian Harry, who is slowly coming into PB shape and ran another strong 55.46s for 2nd.

Both Ciaran McGuire and Pierre Walker put in some gutsy runs but came up against some very high-quality sprinting in the 100m, finishing 8th in the A and 7th in the B respectively.

It was similar in the 200m with Pierre in the B race, coming 5th, who was joined by Kareem Selman-Jackson stepping down from his usual 400m to run the A race, finishing 7th.

In the 400m we saw Daniel Woodburn step up to run the A race, being joined by 800m specialist, Ewan Sommerville. Both had strong finishes in their races, Dan coming home in 50.88 for 4th in the A (sub-50 is definitely on this summer!), while Ewan finished in 3rd in the B in 52.47. There’s more to come from both of these athletes this summer!

Turning up the temperature for the distance events

Despite not training for the event, Steph Hewitt agreed to double up and run the 800m ahead of her favoured 1500m. She ran strongly for 4th. Debutant Helena Samarasinghe kindly agreed to fill in the vacant B string spot at short notice, having only been training for a month, but still produced a brave performance to take 2nd place in the B category.

In the 1500m, training partners Zoe MacDonald and Steph both ran well in the combined A and B string race.

Zoe came 3rd in her first race of the season in 4:46.83, while Steph made sure she won the B string finishing just behind in 4:51.63.

The weather conditions for the 3000m were the worst possible, run in the middle of the afternoon with temperatures over 30 degrees and stifling humidity.

Kate Axford's plan to finish at the bottom end of 9 minutes proved impossible, but she still finished 40 seconds clear of the next runner in 9:29.68, and 20 seconds faster than anyone in the other NAL races in the country.

Orna, meanwhile, kept the other B string runners in sight, moving through into first place in the B category down the final straight. She finished in 10:39.45.

We witnessed a personal best and a season’s best in the men’s 800m.

Ben Ringrose-Voase latched on to a fast leading group for a new PB of 1:55.93 for 5th in the A category, while Billy Matthews ran a 1:57.47 for 2nd in the B.

The 1500m was another source of huge points for the team with a very strong pairing of Sam Gebreselassie and Sam Sommerville. Sam G ran a very sensible tactical race following the leader until he unleashed his famous kick off the final bend to dip under 4 minutes for the first time this season. Sam S tucked into the second group which enabled him to pull through to a season's best time and a well-deserved 2nd place in the B.

In the 3000m race there were incredibly tough conditions for Rob Kelly and Conall McNally, both who had dipped under 9 minutes the Wednesday before. As Kate found, it was impossible to run a fast time.

However, they still pulled off great performances with Rob taking 6th in B and Conall taking 3rd in the B.

A solo steeplechase masterclass

In the 400m hurdles, Harriet Day and Holly Aldridge ran the eventual winner really close, but settled for 2nd in the A and 1st in the B. They teamed up again for the 100m hurdles, after Harriet stepped in to cover the injured Miriam to put in another set of solid performances, with another haul for Belgrave (5th in the A and 2nd in the B).

While there were only 2 competitors in the 2000m steeplechase event, Anna Sharp gave a master class in solo running, coasting to victory (and 12 points!) in 7:09.80, which is only 2 seconds off the club record!

In the 400m hurdles it was the start of a mammoth day for Val as he took on the first of 3 a-string hurdle races (not to mention his Javelin PB after all this!).

Up against some tough competition, he finished in 5th place, with Mike Burslem taking 3rd in the B race. There was a far larger field in the men's steeple with Val (again) being joined by Rob Kelly. Val ran a solid race finishing 5th, despite swearing he would never do it again after injuring himself last year.

Rob very kindly agreed to fill the vacant spot. His hurdling technique could be described as 'unusual', but Rob did pick up another 6 points for third place.

Rob Kelly had an unorthodox approach to steeplechase

Mike then came back to join Val again for the 110m hurdles for more precious points. Val took 5th in the A, and Mike 2nd in the B. Great points haul, despite no specialist hurdlers.

Val Rigori in one of his many events of the day

Showboating in the relays

It was a tough day for our sprinters, and it continued in the 4x100m. The men of Kant Tanyawong, Pierre, Mikael and Ciaran coming home in 8th and the women of Leah Scott, Tayla, Harriet and Sian taking 6th. Some really high calibre sprinters were missing from both teams, with people stepping in for both teams from other events.

But the 4X400m relay was a completely different story.

For the men of Dan, Ewan, Billy and Kareem we saw one of the most dominant displays of the day (after Kate and Anna in their events). They led from gun to tape, winning by 100m in a time of 3:24.51 with the standout leg by 800m runner, Billy Matthews, with Charlie clocking him at 48.9s! Kareem even mustered the energy for ome showboating down the home straight, which drew smiles in the crowd.

In the women’s event with Rachel, Holly, Harriet and Sian, it was very closely-run affair with Bristol and Portsmouth with the lead changing hands several times. Bristol took a 15m lead into the last leg ahead of the Belles with Sian producing a stunning anchor of 54.6s to overhaul the athlete and in the end making it a comfortable win.

Outstanding Performances

We have to mention again some standout performances, two effectively solo runs by Kate in the 3000m and Anna in the 2000m steeplechase. Sian and Billy’s relay legs also deserve recognition!

MVP (Most Valued Points)

Our gong for athlete of the day goes to Val for doing the unthinkable triple – 400m Hurdles, 2000m steeplechase AND 110m Hurdles! If that wasn’t enough he also threw a PB in the Javelin for more points! Well done Val!

Finally a big shout out to Charlie Dickinson, Bob Bridges, Hon Yip, Maureen Noel, Richard McMillan, Chris Privet and Tony Ganio for coaching, officiating, and supporting throughout the day! Without you all we would not be able to compete!

We have two more matches to go in the NAL - on 15th July (Yeovil) and 5th August (Liverpool).

Please make sure you are available, and to those who missed the first one, we still need you too!

Belgrave strike third on return to the National Athletics League Championship