A RARE off-day for the sprinters cost Team Solent dear as they narrowly missed the promotion boat from the British Men's Athletics League Division 4.

Having scored prolifically in previous matches, Solent's speed merchants were well below par in the fourth and final match at Abingdon - although they did manage to win the 4x100m relay to maintain their 100 per cent record in that event.

The most sparkling success story was 18-year-old English Schools' champion Kieren Kelly in the shot.

Having set a personal best of 15.68 metres finishing second in the Senior All-Ireland Schools' Championships in Dublin the previous week, the lad from Lower Bemerton, near Salisbury, did even better, putting 15.73 to win easily.

Overall, Solent finished joint third with Derby, leaving Herne Hill and Crawley to cement their place in Division 3 next season.

Match result: Herne Hill 322, Crawley 320, Team Solent and Derby 292, Kingston 288, Swindon 273, Norwich 237, Bolton 165.

Final league table: Herne Hill 31, Crawley 26, Team Solent 22.5, Norwich 17.5, Kingston 15.5, Derby 15.5, Swindon 12, Bolton 4.5.

TEAM SOLENT RESULTS:

100m A 7th Darren Wall 11.3; B. 8th Tom Berry 11.8.

200m A 7th Gavin Hodgson 23.7; B. 8th Chris Buller 22.8

400m A 5th Darryn Campbell 50.3; B. 1st Peter Brend 50.3

800m A 6th Mark Campbell 1 58.8;B. 4th Russell Osborne 1 57.1

1500m A 3rd James Parker 3 58.0; B. 5th Alex Wall Clarke 4 10.1

5000m A 1st Angus Maclean 14 38.7; B. 3rd Owain Jones 15 43.6

Steeplechase A. 3rd Iain Robertson 9 29.8; B. 4th John Beattie 10 12.2

110m Hurdles A. 1st Lee Tindal 14.7; B. 1st Ben Richardson 15.8

400m Hurdles A. 4th Andy Bargh 57.2; B. 1st Gavin Hodgson 56.7

High Jump A. 3rd Danny Turner 1.95m; B. 6th Chris Buller 1.65m

Long Jump A. 6th Chris Buller 6.10m; B. 6th Chris Bull 5.95m

Triple Jump A. 6th Chris Bull 12.58m; B. 7th Jacob Lewis 11.17m

Pole Vault A. 3rd Alex Beardsmore 3.40m; B. 5th Chris Buller 2.50m.

Shot A. 1st Keiren Kelly 15.73m; B. 1st Gary Sollitt 14.78m

Discus A. 3rd Nick Iliffe 43.63m; B. Andy Waters - no throws

Hammer A. 6th Andy Waters 34.45m; B. 8th Nick Iliffe 19.83m

Javelin A. 4th Anthony Llewelyn 48.37m; B. 5th Jacob Lewis 35.36m

4 x 100m 1st Team Solent 43.0 (Richardson, Brend, Buller, Wall)

4 x 400m 3rd Team Solent 3 22.9 (Hodgson, Parker, Campbell, Brend)