Croydon Harriers boys and girls celebrated their return to National Premier League competition in impressive style at Ashton Playing Fields, Woodford, on Sunday, In a four club tournament, they finished a very close second to winners City of Norwich.

Harriers produced 17 A string winners, six with National grade one standards. Four of the top grades were achieved at U17 level.

Triple jumper Trevor Okorofor got within 33cms of the club record with an outstanding leap of 13.66m. Pole-vaulter Ryszard Buk soared 3.80m for his comfortable victory. Javelin prospect Richmond Baah threw 52.78m to finish more than 3m ahead and high jumper Tsidi Dagadu won a gripping competition with a personal best of 1.93m.

Other Croydon U17 A string wins were scored by team captain Gavin Roye who headed the long jump with a 5.83m effort. Jamel Beckford in the 100m hurdles in 14.8seconds but only 0.1 seconds ahead of B string colleague Anton Denny-Brown the B winner. Mohamed Mohammed won the 3,000m.

Sharp U15 sprinter Ehi Oboite impressed with two grade one wins. He headed the tight A 100m in 11.5second, which earned him the coveted man of the match award and the B 200m in 23.7second. Joash Howard won the A 200m in 24.0second, also a grade one run.

As usual, the U13 boys played a key role assimilating 37 valuable points. Their two A string winners were in a class of their own. Sheldon Brown headed the long jump field by 43cms with his 4.15m effort, and Jordan Maurice ran 5.6second clear of his 1,500m rivals.

The Croydon girls notched up four A string wins as well as covering virtually every opportunity available to them.

U17s Isobel Ballard, Odette Campbel,l Daisy Collingridge and Lauren Smithers were all solid A string winners.

Sophie Patterson was the sole U15 A individual winner, taking the 800m in swashbuckling style and Stephanie Braithwaite stood out with an A 100m second in 13.5seconds, a B 200m win in 27.8seconds and was also third in the 75m hurdles. Sophie also ran 27.8seconds for third in the A 200m, and cleared 1.40m the same height as the winner but took third on count back.

The club staged a fine finishing flourish with some slick relay running, winning all three boys 4x100m races plus the U13 girls event, Croydon were also runners-up in the U15 girls 4x100m and both the boys 4x400m.