AFTER their superb showing at the County Championships, Hunts AC travelled to Newham to take on their Southern Men s League promotion rivals Havering. Their second place finish at the weekend puts them fifth in the league table, just a point behind the le

AFTER their superb showing at the County Championships, Hunts AC travelled to Newham to take on their Southern Men's League promotion rivals Havering. Their second place finish at the weekend puts them fifth in the league table, just a point behind the leaders.

Christian Roberts showed last week's gold medal-winning form with an emphatic win in the 400m hurdles, leading the field home by a clear 10 seconds, despite it being his first race over the distance this year. Peter Downhill was also very impressive in winning the B string.

Another of last week's stars, Matt Leadbitter, finally broke the 50-second barrier for the 400m, stopping the clock at 49.9 sec. Strong winds at the track made circumstances far from ideal for the runners, but setting a personal best in such conditions suggests there is more to come from Leadbitter.

Ian McLaren snatched the win in the B string, dipping over the line to win by 0.4 seconds. McLaren had lost the lead with 100m to go, but dug in and re-passed his opponent with just metres left.

Leadbitter, McLaren and Downhill teamed up with David Leadbitter to win the 4x400m relay. Hunts dominated the race, and won by the length of the home straight.

Hunts also performed well in the sprints, with David Leadbitter winning the A string 200m, and James McLaren completing a winning double in the B string 100m and 200m. In the 4x100m relay they were joined by Matt Leadbitter and Ian McLaren, and the two sets of brothers made it a clean sweep by taking the win by four seconds.

Dave Connell ran a smart tactical race to claim the 3000m steeplechase. Team manager and club chairman Connell tailed the leaders in the early stages before accelerating away to win the race by 20 seconds.

It was another meeting and another club record for Jonathan Edwards, who added more than two metres to his mark in the U17 men's discus, and Christopher Smith sealed his first win of the season in the B string triple jump.

Hunts AC travel to Peterborough on June 6 for their next Men's Southern League match.