Croydon Harriers endured a tough start to their Southern Athletics League first division campaign, finishing fourth at the season’s curtain raiser at Lee Valley.

Damien Powell produced the newly-promoted Harriers performance of the day winning the men’s 200m in 21.7 seconds, a time which would have ranked him in the top 15 in the UK for his age group last year.

Also in the sprints, Ashleigh Clarke won the women’s 100m in 12.2secs.

In the middle-distance events, Patrick Lucas (one minute 57.2secs) and David White (2:00.9) bagged maximum points in the 800m winning the A and B events, and Stevie Lawrence was runner-up in the women’s 1,500m.

In the 5,000m, Alex Penfold was runner-up in 16 minutes 31.9 seconds, and Jake English was home soon after in 16:34.7 to take the B event honours.

On the field, Cora Sexton (9.84m) and women’s captain Zoe Fossett (9.82m) bagged second and first in the triple jump A and B events, while Anieshka Mido (35.11m) and Emma Fossett (33.28m) matched those positions in the women’s hammer.

The men’s 4x100m team of Aaron Adekoya, Tife Ajibade, Brandon Mitchell and Powell were just edged into runners-up spot in 43.2secs.

Reigning champions Southampton (226 points) won, followed by Enfield & Haringey (189) and Walton (153points) with Croydon on 133.

The next fixture is at Croydon Arena on May 17.

Elsewhere, in the pick of the parkrun action, there were five top-three finishes for Harriers -  including four runners-up spots for Ben Savill (Brighton, 17:55), David Brown (Riddlesdown, 17:39), Atlanta Drummond (Lloyd Park, 23:58) and Louise Locke (Crystal Palace, 21:24).

David Chambers was third at Banstead Woods in 18:07.