Team Southampton faced a near impossible task of reaching the final of the British Athletics' League Cup.

With eight semi-finals taking place around the country and only the winners going through, the south coast club would have needed a miracle to have beaten the mighty Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow on their own Thames Valley track.

Nevertheless, Southampton produced some highly creditable performances to finish clear runners-up.

Pick of bunch was Russell Osborn, who followed up a welcome return to form with second in the 800m, by winning the 1500m in 4.03.50.

In the women's high jump, Southampton were boosted by Great Britain basketball international Charlotte Heron, who is competing during her break home from her basketball scholarship in the USA. She marked her debut with a fine winning leap of 1.65 metres.

Other excellent wins came from Iain Robertson (steeplechase), Owain Jones (10,000m), Nik Iliffe (discus), Katy Watts (javelin), Debbie Callaway (discus), Katharine Streatfield (triple jump) and the women's 4x400m relay squad.

Not surprisingly the Southampton team left Eton disappointed that, despite comprehensively outscoring the rest of the opposition, second place was never going to be enough to take them to the final.