Croydon Harriers will compete in the top tier of the Southern Athletics League after battling to promotion at Kingston on Saturday.

To ensure promotion as Division Two South runners-up, Croydon needed to finish second out of the four teams and did just that, finishing behind Kingston on the day but beating them to the second promotion spot by two league points - with Brighton & Hove finishing top.

Harriers enjoyed nine A event wins and three event maximums on Saturday to notch 187 points to comfortably finish above Cambridge (165) and Winchester (130), but behind Kingston (206).

Two Harrier stalwarts made successful returns from injury with Ned Quiney (pole vault, 4.30m) and Paul Ogun (long jump, 6.63m) winning on their comeback.

On the track, there were three event maximums in the middle-distance events. Patrick Lucas won the 800m A race in one minute, 56.9 seconds and Peter Chambers took the 800m B race in 2:01.8. Chambers also triumphed in the 1,500m  in 4:11.9, with Simon Loughran (4:23.8) taking the B event.

In the 5,000m, David White lowered his lifetime best in the event by nearly half a minute to 15:50.3 and Laurence Johnston took the B honours in 18:29.2.

Afam Obi-Adewole (200m, 22.6) and Robert Sakala (110m hurdles, 16.9) bagged the other wins from the men’s section.

In the women’s competition, Stevie Lawrence earned Croydon’s sole A victory of the day in the pole vault thanks to a clearance of 2.30m. There were hard-fought runners-up finishes though from Ashleigh Clarke (100m, 12.6) and Tamara Reid (discus, 30.62m).

The men’s 4x400m team of Joshua Fearon-Rolfe, Chambers, Marcelle Rowe and Lucas brought the curtain down on the league campaign in the best possible fashion, clinging on to victory from the hosts in 3:31.9.

Less than 24 hours later, Ashleigh Clarke and Tamara Reid competed for Surrey at the South of England Inter-County Championships at Barnet Copthall.

Clarke clocked a new lifetime best of 12.13 for third in the 100m final, while Reid came 11th in the discus.

At the final event of the Surrey Road League, the Wimbledon 5km, Lisa Harris unofficially wrapped up the women’s league title with a third place finish in 18:27.

She was supported by Neil Aikman (54th, 19:37) and Andy Del Nevo (61st, 19:51) in the 163-strong field.