ATHLETES of Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletic Club won promotion to Division 1 of the league after finishing on top of Division 2 West this season.

The last senior athletics match of the season took place at Down Grange last weekend.

Going into the match in second place in Division 2 West, Basingstoke needed to win against Oxford City, Hillingdon and Newquay to gain promotion to Division 1.

From the first event of the afternoon Oxford City were the main opposition and there were some good competitions throughout the match.

Led by their team manager Jack Messenger, Basingstoke notched up a host of victories.

The final scores were:

1.Basingstoke & Mid Hants - 242.5 points

2. Oxford City 201.5 points

3. Hillingdon - 113 points, and

4. Newquay – 72 points.

In fact, Jack Messenger scored 3 x A string wins during the afternoon starting with the 400m Hurdles in 65.4s, then the 110m Hurdles in 16.4s, as well as the 2000m Steeplechase in 5m 41.8s and to finish the afternoon with a place in the winning 4 x 400m team.

There was a good double from Henry Christer who won the 100m in 11.0s and the 200m in 22.4s. While on the field, Arran Topham produced a personal best in the Long Jump of 6.41m to win that competition and followed it up with 11.87m in the Triple jump for another win.

In women's sprints, Sofia Eden Aimine won the 100m in 13.00s and later the B 200, running at 27.7s.  Cara McGrath in her first ever 400m, won in a time of 62.4s while Jane Small was the High Jump winner with a 1.45m clearance.   

In men's events Ryan Bonifas had a good day winning the Javelin with a 43.29m throw and a B string Long Jump win with 6.29m. It was good to see Will Parkinson as an under 20 tackle the senior 10m Hurdles. In a second attempt at this event Will scored a B string win in 17.5s – a personal best. Another good hurdle performance came from Emma King finishing second in the 100m Hurdles with a time of 17.2s and Emma was 100m B string winner also. Libbie French had a good day winning the 400m B string Hurdles, with a time of 84.4s and second in the A Triple Jump with 9.91m.

There were a number of other good performances during the afternoon to pick up good points and stretch the home club's lead over Oxford and the other teams. These were Harvey Hannington Green first B Triple Jump with 10.95m, Josh Studwick first B Discus throwing 32.71m. Jasmine Poulter was first in the B Triple Jump recording 9.43m and in the women's Shot Putt saw Laura Darcey won with 10.28m,  while the B string went to Emily Tucker who Putt 9.39m.

The Relays at the end saw Basingstoke win three out of four, Men's 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m along with the Women's 4 x 100m. So a consistent performance saw the club win and get promotion to the 16-club Division 1 next season.