Belgrave Harriers faltered in their defence of the British Athletics League championship on Saturday, finishing second to north London rivals Shaftesbury Barnet, but remain firm favourites to retain their title.

Bels were pipped by a single point in their second round clash at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, with their team drastically weakened with most of their first choice distance runners unavailable.

The south London outfit stretched their lead at the top of the table though, as first round runners-up Sale slumped to fifth. The next round will be a difficult away trip to Edinburgh.

Things opened up well enough with Mike Jones throwing the hammer 73.28m to win the competition outright with the furthest anyone has thrown in the country this year.

Dave Smith mopped up maximum B string points with another classy effort of 69.70m.

In the opening track event, Belgrave were also in winning form with Matt Douglas taking the A race in 50.90s.

Matt was instrumental at the close of the day in securing first place in the 4 x 400m, teaming up with Geoff Dearman, Sean Baldock and Michael Parper to clock 3m 09.26s.

Ben Challenger finished top of the pile in the high jump after a clearance at 2.20m, but youngster Samson Oni lost valuable points after he failed to clear in the B string contest.

The pole vault, however, produced further wins for Bels through Ian Tullett, who cleared 5.10m, and Mike Edwards, 5.00m.

Teenager Tim Kitney opened his account for the club with a fine 59.60m throw to earn third spot in the A string javelin, while Stuart Faben won the B with 58.51m. Belgrave's other individual winner was Kevin Brown, who won the B string discus with 53.61m.

Instrumental in this triumph was new British international decathlete Du'aine Ladejo who contested four events.

He won the 100m in 10.9s, the B string shot with 11.90m, the B string discus with 37.96m and was third in the B string javelin with 41.54m.

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