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After 7 Southern Men’s League fixtures without a match victory, the team finally returned to winning ways with a nail-biting victory over Blackheath & Bromley Harriers at Battersea Park. Having clung to Blackheath’s coattails throughout the afternoon, we didn’t actually seize the lead until the 3000m steeplechase had concluded, but by then had generated sufficient momentum to ensure that the much craved match-win would be achieved.
Since our last success back in July 2007 we have often been found wanting, particularly in the some of the field events, but on the evidence of the season so far, this shortcoming has been rectified by several valuable additions to our ranks and a few familiar faces from years gone by.
Although this was very much a team success, it would be unfair not to highlight the extensive contribution of Didier Sorel, a multi-talented man whose efforts and enthusiasm laid the foundations upon which the team would build. Didier arrived intending to concentrate on his primary event, the 400m hurdles, and then throw the javelin, but following the withdrawal of Sarwar Khan from the pole vault and the possible late arrival of Kevin Burke which might have conspired to cause him to miss the shot put, willing agreed to vault whilst being ready and able to throw the shot if need.
As matters transpired, Kevin arrived in the nick of time to win the shot competition with a throw of 12.61m, leaving Des Austin to claim 2nd place in the B string with 10.21m, enabling Didier to devote his full attention to vaulting. In that event, Pablo Sisca produced another fine 3.00m clearance while Didier’s effort of 2.60m claimed valuable B string points.
Didier’s time of 65.2 in the hurdles understates how well can run this event. Clipping a hurdle as he approached the home straight battling for the lead caused him to fall, but undeterred he rose his feet and regained his composure to complete the event in 3rd place.
In the high jump, Hansley Jones added value to the team in clearing 1.75 to claim 2nd place in A string contest, while Sam Knight showed he by no mean just a distance runner by clearing 1.60m, an improvement of 10cm from the first fixture, to win the B string.
Newly crowned Surrey 100m champion Jeffrey Ocrah maintained his concentration to win the 100m in 10.9 after a couple of nervy false starts by his opponents, backed up by Alex-James Boyce who won the B string in 11.5, while Hansley and Pablo demonstrated their own versatility in each claiming 3rd place in the A and B strings of the long jump.
Two high-quality 800m races then followed as Jonny Henderson and then Jeff Cunningham recorded 2:02.7 and 2:03.3 respectively to finish second in their races before Chris Busaileh then eased to victory in the 5000m in 15:46.6, destroying the field in our own match and taking the fight to those competing in the Division 1 match taking place simultaneously. Within this 5000, an intriguing battle emerged between Sam Knight and Aogan McDombhnaill, running as a non-scorer. Aogan started the more sprightly of the two as he carved out a 30m lead, but Sam’s very determined second half of the race saw him close the gap and eventually pass Aogan to finish in a new PB of16:55.5.
In a fast 400m race, Adam Davis showed signs that his fitness and strength is improving in early season to record 53.7 for 3rd place in the A string, while Kevin Burke’s effort of 54.7 was sufficient to claim 2nd place in the B string. By then, Gavin Johnson-Assoon and Didier had then thrown the javelin 44.36m and 38.28m respectively yet, with another indication of the quality of the competition, these distances were sufficient to secure only 3rd place in each string.
Didier’s final, but possibly most valuable contribution of the afternoon, was to partner Clarence Allen in the 110m hurdles for another double victory. Clarence was by no means at his sharpest having not competed for a couple of seasons, but he recovered from any early stumble to catch and then pass his Blackheath opponent to win in 17.7, confessing afterwards that the stumble presented him with the challenge of running his opponent down and greater enjoyment than is often gleaned from routine victory.
There then followed further sprint success in the 200m as Peter Phillips again demonstrated his promise to place 2nd in the A string in 23.2 while Stedson Dockery won the B string race in 23.9 despite being short of his best form.
The best race of the day, though, was yet to come. Even before it had started, the 1500m promised a fierce contest between training partners Iain Yates and Mike Cummings, both of whom had set new PBs of 4:12 already this season, but the addition of Chris Busaileh and Tim Elsey as non-scorers contrived to deliver what may well rank as one of the most exciting races of the season. Although short of his best form after recent illness, Tim nonetheless lead the pack for the opening laps before Iain upped the tempo at 800m to edge ahead. At that point, it had looked as if he would pull away, but is measure of Mike’s and Chris’ early season form and fitness that they were able to track Iain and, as bell sounded, ever so slowly begin to narrow the gap.
Heading into the back straight it, Mike and Chris seemed to have the momentum and energy for final, eventually catching Iain and Blackheath’s A string runner as the home straight beckoned as transfixed onlookers altered their prediction of the likely winner by the second. Just as it appeared that Chris would dart through the centre to steal victory, when it had appeared that his energy reserves were exhausted, Iain stunned his rivals with an awesome kick to surge clear in the final 50 metres for a very impressive victory and a new PB of 4:09.9. Mike’s efforts in this fine race were of course easily sufficient to win the B string contest and lower his own PB to 4:11.3, narrowly behind Chris who finished in 4:11.1 with Tim not far behind in 4:19.6.
A more exciting race you could not wish to see. I am not sure when Iain, Chris and Mike next plan to go head to head over 1500m, but I hope they let us all know!
By now, the match had long seen been a two-way contest between Blackheath and ourselves as Bracknell and Serpentine lacked the quantity, but by no means the quality of athletes necessary to mount a sustained challenge across all events. With another demonstration of the team’s determination to fill all events, Jeff Cunningham eschewed the to focus on his upcoming 3000m steeplechase race to narrowly miss winning the B string triple jump with a mark of 9.29m as Shola Olajo hopped, skipped and jumped his was to 12.85 to finished 2nd in the A string event.
With 3 events still be scored following the 4 x 100m relay in which the quartet of Peter Phillips, Alex-James Boyce, Kendrick Sinclair and Stedson Dockery placed 2nd in 46.2, we still trailed Blackheath by 5 points and it had appeared that, whilst we would be close to Blackheath, we wouldn’t quite have enough to overturn the deficit. This assessment changed dramatically, however, as Blackheath fielded only 1 runner in the steeplechase, meaning the double victory achieved by Jeff Cunningham and Raj Singh, making his track debut for the club, with times of 10:04.9 and 11:21.6 was good enough to wipe out Blackheath’s lead in an instant.
Needing to achieve parity, at least, in the discus, Gavin and Des went one better and doubled our advantage to 2 points as Gavin threw 32.65m for 3rd place in the A string competition with 32.65m, thus enabling Des’s effort of 29.30m to score maximum B string points.
Not that we knew it at the time, 2nd place in the final event, the 4 x 400m relay would have sufficed, but that wouldn’t in case have dissuaded Peter Phillips from running away from the field on the first leg to seize and advantage that Jordan Musompa, then Kendrick Sinclair and finally Alex-James Boyce refused to relinquish.
And that is how victory was achieved at what could be described as our second home, having hosted many of our own fixtures at the same venue in the past. The team won’t of course be looking to reclaim any expenses from the public purse, but with such sustained commitment and endeavour as was evident yesterday, come the end of the season, we may well be heading to north London for the final fixture to contest a promotion shoot-out for elevation to the second tier. Just like another south London club will be next Sunday.
James Ward
