WALTHAMSTOW AC hosted a Southern Men's League meeting at the weekend, the decisive promotion battle in the division.

With everything at stake, their opponents sent their strongest teams. There were a string of good performances from the home side which earned them fifth place against fierce competition.

Walthamstow's only victory of the match came courtesy of Trevor Sloman, who accelerated off the final barrier to win the 400m hurdles in 59.8sec.

James Obili ran personal best times of 11.9sec in the 100m and 53.4sec for second place in the 400m. His brother Paul, competing for the club for the first time, ran the first leg of the 4x100m relay.

All-rounder Dey Wilson ran the 200m, 800m and the 1500m, the last in 4min 32.7sec. Another busy athlete was Paul Milsom who competed in the 100m, 200m and 400m.

Rob Pattison ran in the 5,000m and set off quickly before the exertions of earlier field events caught up with him.

He was overtaken by fellow Walthamstow runner Danny Rose who clocked 16min 31.5sec. Roger Attwood and Steve Surridge both scored valuable points in the steeplechase.

In the field events, Belho Atek, after coming close several times earlier in the season, broke 10m in the shot putt with 10.13m. Ben Shadbolt scored useful points in the B javelin.