Nevertheless, competition was fierce as Belgrave international Marlon Dickson and Herne Hill's Dominique Richards fought it out for the two senior titles.

Dickson was clear favourite to take the 100 metres after posting the fastest heat time. He repeated his 10.9 sec clocking in taking the final by just one-tenth of a second with Herne Hill's Joshua Wood taking the bronze medal.

Richards gained his revenge in the 200 metres. He looked set for the title as he took his heat in 22.6, faster than Dickson, and then settled the issue with 22.2 in the final, just edging out the Bels runner who clocked the same time.

Richards took a second gold medal in winning the long jump with 6.51 metres.

One of the most impressive wins of the championships came in the 400 metres where Belgrave's Mike Parper regained the title he won in 1997 and 1998 in impressive style.

Parper left his rivals in his wake as he stormed to victory in 47.8 some way outside the championship record of 47.2 he equalled in 1997 but not far off his 1999 best of 47.52. Runner-up James Hilston, also from Belgrave, clocked 50.4. International Ian Tullett (Belgrave) won an exciting three-hour long pole vault contest for Belgrave with five metres, failing narrowly 5.20 metres. Clubmate Ezra Clarke took the triple jump (14.19 metres).

Epsom and Ewell's Bill Fuller junior won the shot (15.66 metres) from Kingston and Polytechnic's Nick Owen (15.59 metres) and 1998 winner Gareth Cook of Sutton (13.76 metres). Bill Fuller senior was fifth with 12.47 metres.

Cook gained his two gold medals in the discus (44.62 metres), where Owen again won silver (42.84 metres) with Belgrave veteran Mike Small third (38.89 metres) and in the hammer (59.10 metres) ahead of Bill Fuller junior (51.25 metres) and Peter Fuller (49.51 metres).

Herne is king of the Hill

Tooting Bec-based Herne Hill Harriers were the most successful club in the women's events in the Surrey track and field championships at Croydon with their athletes picking up no less than 11 titles.

This compared with eight women's titles for Sutton and six each for Epsom and Ewell and Walton.

Herne Hill's greatest success came in the under 17 section where their athletes won four championship events. There was a hat trick of junior winners with Ruth Brereton winning the 100 metres and 400 metres hurdles events in 16.0 and 67.6.

Two wins in the senior section were provided by Sabrina Scott and Emma Whitter in the 100 and 200 metres in 12.1 and 24.6.

Sutton had a hat trick of wins through Lauren Webb (200 metres), Kira Fairclough (800 metres) and Alannah Tollworthy (15,000 metres).

Kingston and Polytechnic's Nicola Walls won the high jump and Walton's Louise Massingham the 75 metres hurdles.

Epsom and Ewell's Natalie Brant took the junior long and triple jump with clubmate Emily Parker winning both the under 17,300 metres hurdles and triple jump.

Teen Ward

on top form

Teenage international Richard Ward from Sutton showed impressive form at the annual Surrey track and field championships at Croydon lifting two junior titles in less than 24 hours, writes Tom Pollak.

His first target was the 3,000 metres. There, he sat in on Epsom College pupil Ed Prickett until 600 metres to go when he unleashed a powerful finishing burst, covering the final lap in 58 seconds, to cross the line in 8 min 35 sec, 10.3 seconds ahead of Prickett with Hercules Wimbledon's Craig Farr in third place.

The Wallington High School youngster adopted similar tactics in the 1,500 metres on Sunday morning.

Allowing Prickett to set the pace, he came storming home with a 57-second final lap in 3.53.2 to beat his lifetime best as well as the championship record.

More satisfying for Richard was that both his 800 metres times of 1:59.0 were considerably faster than the winning effort of 2.05.4 by Herne Hill's Dedan Simmons in the individual junior 800 metres.

Two other Sutton junior men winners were hurdler Dominic Savan (16.6) and triple jumper Dave Wellstead (13.50 metres), who also took the silver in the long jump (6.23 metres).

Walton's James Rowley won the discus (47.35 metres), Epsom and Ewell's Chris Mangham the javelin (47.35 metres) and Belgrave's Tim Abeyie the 200 metres (22.4).