Sale Harriers celebrate after they initially were awarded the win
Following the British Athletics League AGM held on Saturday November 16th, Shaftesbury Barnet were crowned BAL Premiership Champions 2013, the second year in succession.
The battle between Shaftesbury and Sale Harriers was a competitive one this season. At the final BAL premiership fixture at the Allianz Park in August, Sale Harriers were initially reported to be winners. This came as a result of an off-key third fixture trip to Sheffield for Shaftesbury, who travelled incredibly light due to a number of athletes missing on international duty. This meant that SBH had to win the final fixture and hope that Sale would finish no better than third. The results followed:
1st SBH – 366 match points
2nd Sale Harriers Manchester – 319 match points
3rd City of Sheffield – 308 match points
Thus, Sale Harriers Manchester narrowly took the Premiership title overall, beating SBH 29 to 28 league points.
However, after the recent disqualification of a Sale Harriers athlete for a drug offence, the match was rescored, with the Sale athlete’s 24 match points deducted. The revised results promoted City of Sheffield into second place on the day, with Sale Harriers moving down into third.
Therefore, the revised BAL Premiership title reads:
1st SBH – 28 – 1341
2nd Sale Harriers – 28 – 1248
3rd City of Sheffield – 18 – 1058
Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers retained their national title and will represent GB & NI in the European Champions Clubs Cup for Seniors in Portugal on 24/25th May 2014.
