Sunday saw the the long-awaited return of track & field club competitions with the newly formed National Athletics League (NAL), formed from a merger of the men’s British Athletics League (BAL) and the Women’s Athletics League (WAL).

This was the men’s team’s first time competing in a national league following an eight-year hiatus from the British League. The team in Portsmouth featured some of the regulars from back then including Will Cockerell who first competed for Belgrave 22 years ago at the same venue. The women have been regulars in the UK Women’s league for a number of years now but this was the first time competing with the men in a National league format. After numerous glitches in the results programme, we finished second overall to hosts City of Portsmouth, which is an excellent result.

Sprints

Sam Ige took a clean sweep in the men’s A string sprints with assured 100m and a dominant display in the 200m. He capped his day off with a fine comeback on the anchor leg of the 4x100 to take the win for Belgrave even with the athlete in the lane next to him coming into his lane.

Pete Wild won his non-scoring 100 in 11.41 and produced a solid 23.31 in the B string 200 and led of the winning 4x100 quartet. Not to be outdone, Pierre Walker did all the sprint events on the timetable: he started with the non scoring 100, followed by a good run in the B string 100, a win in the non scoring 200, second leg of the 4x100 and finishing his day off with a change of spikes and the second leg of the 4x400. Miles Kershaw was nursing a few niggles but ran a solid non scoring 100 and the third leg of the 4x100. 

Olivia Wilding, in her first outing for Belgrave, competed in the 100, 200 and 4x100 and was joined by Amy Mat in all three events with Olivia also running a leg in the long relay.

In the men’s 400 two new Belgravians produced very solid openers, Kareem Selman-Jackson 2nd A 50.7 and Daniel Woodburn 2nd B 52.53

In the ladies Sian Harry continued her fine early season form with a well-timed 400 in 55.16 where she picked off the rest of the competitors, coming off the top bend and ran clear down the home straight. She was backed up in the B string win by Rachel Donnison in 57.13 who had an outside lane leading the field off and held everyone off until the end bar Sian.

Middle Distance

Women

Katie-Ellen French easily won the 800m in a time of 2:17. She sensibly decided not to follow the ambitious early pace of one of the Portsmouth athletes, hitting the bell in 66 seconds then taking the lead on the back straight. With the race already won, Katie relaxed down the finishing straight but looks very capable of running well under 2:15 this season. 

Recent new member Beth Brown showed what a fine acquisition she will be to the team in finishing fourth in 2:25. Beth is slowly returning to full fitness and has already run sub-5 minutes for 1500m this season. 

There were two very big PB's for Orna McGinley and Olivia Papaioannou in the 1500m. They both did their share of leading to ensure a decent pace and both only narrowly lost out to a fast-finishing Reading runner over the final straight. 

Orna ran 4:48, with Liv just behind in 4:50. Both Belles will be aiming for sub-4:45's this season. 

There was a furious early pace set in the 3000m with the leading two finishing in just over ten minutes. Laura Goodson and Natalie Beadle both suffered from this and the very humid conditions. However, although they both became isolated in the race, they continued to plug away and Laura ran a season's best time of 10:45, and Natalie a PB in 11:21. 

Men

In a rare 800 outing Gareth Holden produced a fine run very close to breaking the elusive 2 minute barrier. A year of lockdown 5ks and couple months of track work providing just what he needed to beat his previous best by over 2.5s, proving there’s still hope that training works and you don’t just need the next generation spikes. David Walsh had two solid runs backing Gareth up in the 800m and Sam in the 1500m.

Racing under distance in his first ever 1500m race as a sharpener for his BMC 5000m at Watford the following week, Sam Gebreselassie produced a 57 second last lap and used his endurance strength secure a close second place in a time of 3:55.92 in a terrifically exciting race.  

Tommy Taylor knocked ten seconds off his 3000m PB running 9:08 in the 3000m. Tommy was backed up by Will Cockerell adding to his national league tally of points as he showed he’s still got some running left in him. After covering his family duties attending his sons cricket match he made the trip to Portsmouth to support the Team.

Throws

The throwers did their best in some stiff competition last Sunday and treated the events as a start of season warmup. We had two new throwers competing for the club: Lilly Lee primarily throwing javelin (32.43m) but also threw Discus and Shot. Lily somehow got her old club to release her and UKA to re-register her to Belgrave within 48 Hours - that must be a new record! Our other new thrower Frida Engstrom performed well throwing the hammer (34.96m) in competition for the first time in many years. With Lilly she also threw the Javelin and Shot and Discus. Ellen Hunter put in a really good, consistent, quality performance registering all three throws in ever increasing distances (best Throw was 24.74m).

Peter Wild and Matt Threadgold represented us in Javelin (Peter threw 38.52m and Matt reached 36.13m) but Peter Wild also juggled other events at the same time. Our old stalwarts Peter Mayfield and Chris Privett did all the other throws. Peter had a groin strain from the pole vault and struggled through all three of his throwing events often surprising himself how much that last throw hurt!! Peter was most impressive in the discuss (best 34.55m) although his explosive shouting sounded like a wounded animal at times. Peter will insist on making sure everyone knows he beat the Hammer coach for the first time ever. I am sure Chris Privett will rectify that in the next comp.

Jumps

A fairly bare team in the jumps, Pete Wild produced a very good long jump to take second place before clearing 1.70m in the high jump on the way to his 200m start. Matt Threadgold produced a cameo scissor kick clearance to get a few B string points. Peter Mayfield has been our solitary pole vaulter for a while and continued the good work. 

The ladies had the misfortune of going first in the high jump where Yasmin Henlon discovered the mat was very moist and had soaked up a lot of rainwater for how long we could only guess. She followed this win in the HJ with a second place in the Triple Jump.

A special mention for Helen Brown who has been a great team player for many years filling in where others don’t. She started the day off in traditional Helen style with the 400 hurdles and took a win there. However the day didn’t finish as well ending up in A&E following a nasty fall on the water jump of the steeplechase, she was on for another win but it wasn’t to be. We all wish Helen a speedy recovery and hope that we can fill these events with athletes that train for them at future matches.

Finally, Will told me that despite her injury Helen didn't lose her sense of humour. After she had been in the water for at least ten minutes, Will suggested they help her out as she would be getting cold. No, she said, leave me in here, the water’s lovely! 

The match wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic officials and volunteers who gave up their Sunday to make this happen.

Report by Charlie Dickinson and Matt Threadgold

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