Belgrave Harriers, British League Champions and GRE Cup winners in 1997, took their first big step toward repeating that outstanding feat this year on Saturday.

The south Londoners opened their account in the showpiece competition of the British Athletics division one of the British League, by seeing off the best the rest of the country could offer.

They set the pace for the rest to follow with victory by a healthy 32 point margin at the Woodside Stadium, Watford.

It was a fine all-round performance by the south Londoners who showed great skill and team spirit.

Particularly pleasing for joint managers Jeffery and Bill Laws was the lifetime best mark attained by hammer thrower John Urqhart. His 59.49m effort took first place in the B string, and was not far behind the leading group overall. Belgrave's Dave Smith won the A with 70.94m.

Belgrave's wealth of sprinting talent was evident in the 100m with Darren Campbell winning the A race clocking 10.48s while Jason Fergus won the B with 10.73s. In the 400m Geoff Dearman ran a confident race out in lane eight to win in 47.05s.

In the throwing events, Lee Newman added a touch of class to an already impressive outfit.

He won the discus A string with a fine 58.58m effort, while Kevin Brown won the B with 56.59m. Matt Simpson won the shot with 17.99m and Newman took the B with 16.64m.

Again impressive were a number of Belgrave's younger members getting a taste of the topflight, some for the first time.

Steve Scott fared well in the sprint hurdles, hanging on to second spot in the B race with a time of 15.39s, while 17 year old Samson Oni cleared a season's best 2.0m in the high jump to take second B string slot.

Phillips Idowu, fourth in the European Junior final last year, took third in the A string triple jump with 15.10m while 18 year old Charles Igbon took second place in the B string with a leap of 14.16m.

A gripping pole vault competition ended with Belgrave taking maximum points there too, with both Mike Edwards and Ian Tullett clearing 5.30m.

With this the first of four rounds now complete, and Sale Harriers Manchester pushing Harriers much of the way, the competition is by no means over yet.

But if Belgrave manage to get all their top men out for at least two of the remaining three clashes, retaining their title this year will surely be little more than a formality.

n For more details about the club call 0181 946 6859.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.