Kingston won promotion to the first division in the London Borough Athletic Championships with rivals Richmond finishing in fourth place.

The Kingston team had the advantage of being on home ground as Kingsmeadow Stadium hosted the event as they stormed to second place.

Outstanding for Kingston was Esher College student Nick Owen who heaved the shot out to 13.07 metres in a thrilling contest to beat Sutton's Gareth Cook by just six centimetres.

Kingston's Angharad Hughes also showed the way home in the under 17 1,500 metres, crossing the line in 5 min 23 sec.

Kingston's Tom Solomon was runner-up in the 400 metres hurdles in 61.1 sec, while Draco Mkpa was second in the 400 metres flat in 52.2 sec.

Kingston's Laura Brown also secured second spot in the women's 400 metres in 63.6 sec, Carl Chaney runner-up in the under 17 3,000 metres in 10 min 15.5 sec.

Another second place for Kingston was secured by Kevin McCabe who clocked 15 sec in the 200 metres.

Jenny Bacon was also second in the senior women's high jump.

Veteran

Another Kingston winner was Liz Patrick who took the triple jump with 11.59 metres. She was also second in the 100 metres hurdles in 15.7 sec.

One of their top performers was veteran runner Steve Badgery who earned third spot in the 3,000 metres.

Kingston athletes also notched up some gold medal-winning performances, Erica Fogg in the senior women's 1,500 metres, Liz Patrick in the senior women's triple jump and Nick Owen in the senior men's shot.

There were runners-up spots for Liz Patrick, Laura Brown and Jenny Bacon in the senior women's 100 metres hurdles, 400 metres and high jump respectively.

Other Kingston athletes who finished second in their events included Kevin McCabe, Matthew Lindsay, Tom Solomon, Draco Mkpa, Joe Sutton and Gawain Owen.

Richmond's 25-strong squad retained Division Two status thanks to some fine individual performances.

Many of their athletes are members of Richmond and Twickenham Athletic Club who train at Barn Elms in Barnes.

Best Richmond efforts came from Ben Nutley who took the 200 metres in 22.6 sec, Liz Kipling who won the 3,000 metres in 11 min 9.4 sec and Steven Barber who won the under 17 300 metres in 9 min 57.7 sec.

Other Richmond gold medal winners included Seb Gibbs, Rufus Cooper and Rory Carou.

Sutton won the division with 226 points to secure promotion alongside Kingston (197). Third was Tower Hamlets (160) ahead of Richmond (154), Ealing (118) and Croydon (84).

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