Under clear, bright autumnal skies, cross country action took place close to home for Morpeth Harriers at the weekend with the second round of the Start Fitness sponsored North East Harrier League held at Druridge Bay Country Park.
And although there were no individual winners this time for the club, there were two team wins to go with the many strong performances in blue and white. The first of those team wins came courtesy of the club’s Under 13 Boys squad, who look to be shaping up well as a competitive outfit, with Jacob Thompson and Evan Laude second and third overall and Liam Jackson finishing the team count of a miserly eleven points in sixth. George Moll (10thh), Daniel Vermaas (28th from Fast Pack) and Lewis Baillie, one of a number of young athletes making a competitive debut, in 49th, also all turned out supporting runs. The second team win was similarly emphatic, with the club’s Senior Men proving to be much too strong for the opposition in the day’s final three-lap event over just short of 10 kilometres. U/20 and KEVI sixth former Will de Vere Owen was 3rd overall in 33 minutes 23 seconds behind race winner Cameron Allan of Houghton Harriers, whose time of 31:57 was also the fastest of the day, with Heaton’s Chris Larkin 2nd. De Vere Owen was chased home in 4th by colleague Tom Balsdon, with Joe Dixon, running from Medium Pack, not far behind in 10th. With Shaun Land 24th from Slow, Alistair Douglas 27th from Fast and Jake Parmley 32nd, also from Slow, the team finished on 55 points, well ahead of early division leaders North Shields Polytechnic Harriers in 2nd on 90 with Elswick Harriers well back in 3rd. There were no less than 19 Harriers out in total, with Mark Banks next in, 39th from Medium (37:40) and Rob Hancox in 82nd from Slow (41:18). Other finishers were: Andriy Volkov, 93rd from Slow (41:29); Anthony Jannetta, 109th from Medium (39:15); Ben Heatley, 153rd from Medium (39:53); Andrew Hebden 177th from Medium (40:17); Lee Bennett, 195th from Medium (40:42); Richard Glennie, 264th from Slow in 44:40; Neil Mcanany, 280th from Slow in 45:03; Mark Snowball, 327th from Medium (43:45); Steve Johnstone, 356th from Slow in 47:07 and Rich Kirby, 368th from Slow in 47:30. NSP finished well back in 2nd on 90 points with Birtley 3rd on 122, although NSP narrowly head the division after two fixtures, with big on the day losers Tyne Bridge and Sunderland Harriers. 551 finished. The previous, penultimate race had seen Morpeth’s women miss out on a team win by an agonising one-point margin to Durham City. In her first ever race in a blue and white vest, Poppy Buck looked far from out of place near the front of the field, coming home in 10th, with Elswick’s Sophie Pikett recording the day’s fastest time of 24:47 for the two lap course and runners from Durham City 2nd and 3rd. Another remarkable performance by veteran Jane Hodgson saw her record the day’s third fastest time of 25:26 in 19th place, remarkable because it came only 24 four hours after taking part in the England Masters Cross Country trials in Derbyshire, where she again secured selection for her country in the British and Irish Masters Cross Country International to be held in Glasgow next month. Morpeth’s scoring count of four was made up by strong runs from Robyn Bennett and Lizzie Rank, 22nd in 28:24 and 24th in 28:40 out of Medium Pack, with Tayla Douglas not far behind in 26th, 31:08 from Slow. Lorna Macdonald, from Fast, was 94th in 28:03 and Julie Vermaas made it a family affair, 120th in 31:15 from Medium. Laura Mclean was 161st in 34:11, Kay Errington 277th in 36:41 and Fran Robson 332nd in 38:49. Another big field, with over 450 out and Durham one point ahead of Morpeth, with South Shields in third. It looks to be a well-contested championship once again, with Durham City out front and Morpeth now in second a couple of points behind, Jesmond in third. There was another team second in the earlier U/15 Girls race, where Emma Tomlinson also medalled individually in 3rd place, with Charlotte Marshall (13th), and Lucie Todd and Mya Young, both in their first races for Morpeth, 19th and 20th, and Megan Potrac 20th. It was certainly a successful day overall for the Tomlinson family, with Zoe picking up a medal as third finisher in the U/13 Girls, whose team finished 5th, with Faye Heatley 14th from Fast and Emily Vermaas, in her first year in the age category, 51st from Slow. Older brother Oliver went one better than his two sisters, coming home 2nd in the U/17 Boys, with Stephen Craske 22nd from Fast and Harry Armstrong 25th from Slow, the team finishing third. First races of the day were of course the U/11s (with Penfold siblings Noah and Ada winning both), and there was another Morpeth debutant in the form of Heather Baillie, who finished in 30th place with Emily Hodgson 45th. The keenly contested races saw more girls than boys, with 82 girls and 60 boys finishing. Full results are available here. View Stuart Whitman's gallery of images here. Round two of the NEHL takes place at Druridge Bay this Sunday (not the traditional Saturday on which other NEHL fixtures take place).
After a bit of a disappointing turn-out at Wrekenton, we’re hoping for bigger numbers at Druridge, and certainly full teams in all age categories. Timings are as other fixtures, with the first race off at midday. Please note however:
Here’s hoping we see lots of blue and white vests out. Al Macdonald travelled up to the Scottish Borders to take part in Saturday’s Yetholm Shepherds Fell Race in some wet and misty conditions.
Only some 42 hardy souls braved the 1100 feet of climbing over the 6.5 km course, with Al coming home 8th in 40 minutes, 2nd Over 60 behind world mountain age champion Colin Donnelly. The race was won by Lauderdale athlete Mark Wilkinson in 35 minutes with NFR member Karen Robertson 1st lass home in 44 minutes. Meanwhile new member Nicola McCoy ran in the Langdale Horseshoe in similarly tricky conditions exacerbated by fog with a challenging 21km and 1450m of climbing. Nicola was 175th and 13th O/40 in 4:15:21. The race was won by Tom Simpson in 2:13:47 with Louise Mitchell 1st woman back in 2:51:33. As the organisers put it themselves on their website, ‘The weather in October is rarely pleasant and the fells are often clagged in, making navigation difficult on a course with many pathless sections.’ Always good to hear a race prospectus that doesn’t pull any punches. There were two days of races at the Kielder Marathon Weekend, with the action getting under way on Saturday in the 10k event.
It was won by Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor in a time of 34:31, Andrew Hebden was Morpeth’s first finisher in 4th place in 39:58 with Andriy Volkov 9th in 41:41 and Lindsey Quinn 27th and 7th female finisher in 44:34. It was a busy weekend for Andriy all right, who, not content with his efforts on the Saturday, also turned out in Sunday’s half-marathon while raising funds for Wateraid, where he managed a fantastic 28th place (1:32:44). Club colleague John Butters got himself onto the podium on the day after finishing 2nd for the third successive year in a time of 1:19:38, behind first home Simon Stockdale-Cook in 1:16:53. Sarah Kerr of Claremont RR was 1st female finisher in 1:28:43. Sadly, however, organisers Events of the North were made aware that the 1st placed runner in the Half Marathon was not actually who they said they were, and had in fact run in a borrowed number, not even bothering to attend the presentation – or come clean. The automatic disqualification that ensued gave JB the win, although not perhaps in the way he would have wanted, also robbing him of his moment at the top of the podium – while also generating a lot of adverse local newspaper headlines, the last thing the event or our sport wants. Matters were made worse with the revelation that a male athlete also lined up wearing a female athlete’s number, despite having been told well in advance that the number could not be transferred. Thankfully, he was persuaded to leave the course. There were well over 500 finishers in the demanding full marathon, which was won in a time of 2:49:05 by Keswick AC’s Russell Maddams with NSP’s Lucie Custance first female finisher in 3:18:38. Colin Archer was first Morpeth home in 3:35:17 with Anna Wright 41st , 4th woman home but 3rd O/40 in 3:37:11. Laura Mclean was 286th in 4:39:24 and Jane Briggs 368th and 5th O/55 in 4:53:34. As the organisers later quite rightly pointed out in a press release that condemned the actions of both the individuals who had been disqualified, their actions ‘tainted’ the weekend for other runners who were directly affected by what they did. Can we at Morpeth Harriers therefore remind all our members that numbers should not be swapped, sold or given away to other members of the club, however tempting or well-meaning that may seem to be, not unless an agreed process for doing so with the organisers has taken place (as happens, for example, at The Coastal Run within a set time window). There are very good reasons to do with injuries, accidents and safeguarding for this. The club will take a dim view of anyone doing so and individuals who are found out are likely to face sanctions from the sport’s governing body, whether locally or nationally. Lord knows it’s hard enough getting events on these days anyway and the last thing our sport needs is the adverse publicity this kind of things generates. Recording their best finish in many years, Morpeth Harriers’ Senior Men were just over a minute off a medal when finishing 5th at the English Road Running Association Six Stage Road Relays at the weekend.
Held as is traditional within the grounds of Sutton Park in the northern outskirts of Birmingham, the day once again featured the strongest clubs and the best runners from right across the country, with competition for Young Athletes over legs of 3.88 kilometres and the Seniors each completing 5.8k. Losing Scott Beattie, who had struggled all week following his first race in a GB vest at Riga, Latvia and had sadly to withdrew on the morning of the race, was certainly a blow to the team, although they still led the competition at the half way point. Finn Brodie was lead out man once again, his 17:43 getting the team back in 15th with Will de Vere Owen, promoted to the A team after his strong performance in the Northern event at Birkenhead, clocking 18:13 for 19th. All changed with GB international Rory Leonard on leg 3, however, with a barnstorming run of 16:38, the third fastest overall of the day, taking the team into the lead. With strong national outfits Leeds City AC, Aldershot, Farnham and District and Cambridge and Coleridge AC all having their own big hitters on last legs, it was always going to be a challenge to hang on, and despite good runs by Lawrence McCourt (17:54 for 2nd), Will Cork (18:15, 5th and Carl Avery (17:31, 5th), the club just slipped out of the medals, finishing in a time of 1:46:14. Leeds City - an ominously strong club these days - were winners in 1:44:36, just 10 seconds ahead of Aldershot, Farnham and District with Cambridge and Coleridge AC 3rd in 1:44:52. Fastest individual leg of the day was from Birchfield Harrier Omar Ahmed, who clocked 16:34. The B team also had a good afternoon, finishing a creditable 36th and 5th B team, ahead of the A teams of many of the 70 clubs who took part. George Lowry ran 18:24 on leg 1 (43rd), Sam Hancox had the team’s fastest stage with 18:07, moving the team into the top thirty (28th) with Phil Winkler getting up to 25th (18:29). Matty Briggs, creditably coming in as first reserve at very short notice, ran 19:49 (35th) and teenagers Liam Roche (19:21, 40th) and James Tilley (19:00, 37th) brought the team home (Belgrave were disqualified, hence the final place of 36th not 37th). No question of Morpeth not having the North East bragging rights, as neither Sunderland Harriers nor Tyne Bridge, who had both qualified, travelled to compete. Nor was there NE involvement in the Senior Women’s four stage race, where Aldershot Farnham and District A narrowly beat the next team, who were Aldershot Farnham and District B (58:07 to 58:19), with Leeds City given the same time as the B in 3rd place. Morpeth’s Under 17s were also one of only two North East teams to travel to the Young Athlete races, finishing a highly respectable 17th of some seventy-one clubs, with legs by Joe Close (12:26), Oliver Tomlinson (12:48) and Elliot Kelso (12:14). (TBH U/15 Boys were the only other NE outfit who ventured South). |
Archives
July 2024
|