Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes made a disappointing start to their NEYDL Division 2 season in their opening match held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on Sunday 21 April.
Despite efforts made by joint Team Managers David Swinburne (Boys), and Julie Roche (Girls), the club only managed to turn out a total of 17 athletes between them, hardly enough to mount a serious team challenge. As a result, the hard-working squad who did turn out, could only finish seventh out of eight competing teams, and unless there is a significant improvement in turnout over the next three matches, beginning at Shildon next month, it is going to be an uphill struggle to improve. To be fair, the small number who did turn out, did their level best in their respective performances, and there were some good achievements, along with some positive attitudes. One of the most positive was Under 13 Boy Mason Gaylor, who made a superb start by winning both the 200m (30.4s), and 800m (2m27.40s) on the track, and in the Field Events won the B String Javelin (7.54m). Unfortunately Mason was one of only two Under 13 Boys who turned out on the day, the other being Jack Dhawar, who finished third in the B String 200m (36.8s), second in the B String 800m (2m58.0s), and second in the A String Javelin (11.5m). There were some better results to come however for Morpeth, created by their three Under 13 Girls who turned out. Lucy Raper took part in three of their events, winning the A String 800m in 2m42.20s, where Heidi Wilkinson made it a double victory for her club, by taking the B Race in 2m47.20s. Raper went on to also triumph in the Discus by throwing 16.97m and finished fifth in the Shot Putt (performance to confirm). Morpeth’s other Under 13 Girl was Zoe Tomlinson, who produced an excellent run to win the 1500m in 5m 23.0s and was sixth in the 200m (35.7s). The best result in the Under 15 Girls events, came from the 1500m, where Emma Tomlinson finished second in the A Race 5m14.65s, and Faye Heatley took the B Race in 5m36.67s. Emma also finished fifth in the 300m (51.6s) and threw 15.1m in the Javelin for third place. Miya Young finished sixth in the 200m (31.1s) and was seventh in the 800m in 2m49.36s. Daniel Scott very nearly won the Under 17 Men’s 800m, just losing out in the final 50m to Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth’s Ben Garbutt, as he posted a time of 2m19.43s. Scott was one of only four Morpeth Under 17 Men who turned out on the day, and he teamed up with Steven Craske in the Long Jump, winning the B event with a best of 3.65m, while Craske finished second in the A String, producing a best of 4.47m. In the sprints, Connor Phillips finished fifth in the 100m (12.0s), and fourth in the 200m (24.4s). Craske finished fourth in the 100m B Race in 13.3s. Morpeth’s Harry Armstrong finished second in the Under 17 Men’s 1500m in 4m35.54s. The club only had five Under 17 Women in their line-up. In the sprints, Abigail Kahn finished third in the 100m (13.9s), and fourth in the 200m (28.5s). Megan Potrac and Charlotte Marshall teamed up for Morpeth in the Under 17 Women’s 300m and 800m events. In the 300m A Race Potrac finished fifth in 54.0s, and Marshall was third in the B Race in 55.4s. Potrac was fifth in the 800m A Race in 2m54.65s, and Marshall posted a time of 2m58.71s to finish fourth in the B Race. Making her Morpeth track debut, Lucy Todd finished fourth in the 1500m in 5m52.50s. Mollie Roche competed for Morpeth in the Under 17 Women’s Field Events, finishing second in the Javelin with a best of 7.75m, and third in the Discus with 12.7s. Team Managers Swinburne and Roche, hope to see a better turnout when their charges are in second round action at Shildon on Sunday 19 May. MATCH RESULT 1st Chester Le Street/Durham C 715.5pts, 2nd Middlesbrough/Houghton/Derwentside 618pts, 3rd Blyth/Alnwick 519pts, 4th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 463pts, 5th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 430pts, 6th New Marske 413.5pts, 7th Morpeth Harriers 343pts, 8th Tynedale/Prudhoe 261pts.
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Morpeth Harriers Senior Men and Women began their 2024 Domestic Track and Field campaign in enterprising fashion, when finishing a close third behind hosts Darlington, and a combined team of Blaydon/Elswick Harriers, in their opening NESDL Division 1 fixture, held at Shildon on Saturday 20 April.
Team Managers George Patterson and Mark Banks (Men), and Rachelle Falloon (Women), managed to recruit 19 members to turn out on the day, with nine men, and ten women contributing towards the club’s tally. In her very first track appearance for Morpeth, Poppy Buck proved to be a star performer, winning both the Women’s 800m in 2m25.40s, and later going on to win the 1500m in 5m32.20s. Team Manager Falloon provided excellent support to Buck in the B race of the 800m, finishing second in 2m35.30s. However, Falloon proved to be a star herself in the 2000m Steeplechase, which she very convincingly won in 8m13.03s, and also finished second in the earlier run 3000m in 10m51.30s. There were some good points scores from the Women’s sprint events. In the 100m, Mia Belton finished third in the A Race in 13.0s, and Freya Caygill in her first Senior outing won the B race in 13.1s. Caygill also finished third in the A Race of the 200m in 26.87s, and Nisha Desai finished second in the B Race in 27.4s Additional performances for Morpeth in the 100m and 200m respectively, came from Ellie Wickens 14.0s, and Mia Belton 27.44s. In the 400m and 400m Hurdles, Kay Errington finished fourth and third respectively in 75.9s and 78.3s. Morpeth finished second in both the 4 x 100m Relay and 4 x 400m Relay in 54.11s, and 4m46.79s. In the Field Events, the best Morpeth result came from Claire Reid in the Hammer, where she had a comfortable victory with a best of 25.34m. Reid also finished second in the Discus with a best of 28.69m. She also finished fifth in the Javelin B String (16.80m), backing up Nisha Desai’s A String performance of 19.05m, which saw her finish fifth. Olivia Gent finished third in the Triple Jump with a best of 9.23m, and fifth in the Long Jump with 3.94m. Although there were no A String wins on the day amongst the Men’s performances, there were still some good results achieved, with a sterling amount of effort being made by the nine athletes who turned out for Morpeth. One of the best of these, came in the 800m, where Peter Smallcombe finished second in the A Race in 2m02.20s, and Joe Dixon in his first Senior League outing, took the B Race in 2m07.70s. Josh Fiddaman, making his Morpeth track debut following his transfer from Blyth, finished second in the A Race of the 1500m in 3m57.11s, and Ethan Phillips finished second in the B Race in 4m20.73s. In his first appearance for some time in the Blue and White Vest of Morpeth, Ian Harding turned out to finish third in the 3000m, posting a finishing time of 9m17.70s. Harding also ran the B race of the 400m, finishing third in 64.9s, supporting Anthony Liddle’s excellent second in the A Race, where he posted a time of 57.97s, just missing out on actual victory by a mere fraction to Wallsend/Blyth’s Nigel Gorvett. Morpeth sprinters Sean O’Hara and Phil Pitt were also well to the fore in the action in the 100m and 200m events. O’Hara finished third in the A Race of the 100m in 11.9s, and also third in the 200m in 23.7s. Pitt was second in the B Race of the 100m in 12.2s, and also second in the B Race of the 200m in 25.2s. Another strong Morpeth performance in the 200m was from Anthony Liddle, who posted a time of 26.2s. Morpeth finished second in both of the Men’s Relays, posting times of 49.64s in the 4 x100m, and 3m58.63s in the 4 x 400m. The best result in the Men’s Field events was without doubt in the Long Jump where Veteran athlete Jason Dawson finished second in the A String, producing a best of 4.39m, and Anthony Liddle finished second of the B String with 4.1m. Dawson was indeed a workhorse in the Morpeth Field events, where he competed in three additional events. He was fourth in the Triple Jump (8.83m), fifth in the Javelin (22.46m), and third in the B String High Jump (1.40m), supporting again Anthony Liddle, who was fifth in the A String, by clearing 1.45m. Morpeth sprinters Sean O’Hara and Phil Pitt teamed up in the Shot Putt, with O’Hara finishing fourth in the A String (8.49m), and Pitt finishing second in the B String with 8.24m, all vital point scoring towards the final result. MATCH RESULT 1st Darlington Harriers 467pts, 2nd Blaydon/Elswick 321pts, 3rd Morpeth Harriers 318pts, 4th Wallsend/Blyth 317pts, 5th Gateshead Harriers 306pts, 6th New Marske Harriers 247pts. There were four Morpeth Harriers among the record 50,000-plus runners in Sunday’s London Marathon, where Peres Jepchirchir set a new Women-only World Record of 2 hours 16 minutes 16 seconds, with Kenyan compatriot Alexander Mutiso winning the Men’s race in 2:04:01.
First back for Morpeth was seasoned London veteran Andrew Lawrence, recording a time of 2:35:39 with another consistent run. (Coincidentally, Lawro’s old adversity – ‘the other Andrew Lawrence’ – finished just a few minutes ahead.) Behind him were three other runners in blue and white vests who all recorded personal bests despite the rather blustery conditions, a real tribute to their months of often solitary dedication, with training this winter frequently taking place in the wet. Rob Hancox ran 3:03:11, a delighted Anna Wright came home in 3:18:33 and her training companion Jane Kirby was not far behind in 3:28:24. Watchers of the Women’s race from Morpeth no doubt also spotted Mhairi Maclennan, who had represented the club when winning the Northern Cross Country title at Harewood House in 2018. She proved she’s not just a class act over the country with a time of 2:29:15 on her marathon debut, Mhairi aptly commenting later, ‘I had the debut of dreams.’ Saturday had seen the series of Mini-Marathons taking place over a 2.6 kilometre course on the Mall, with over 13,000 youngsters given a taste of the big race experience and this time there were three Harriers representing the North East region in an inter-area regional match. Ewan Line was 200th in the Under 13 Boys, recording a time of 9 minutes 29 seconds. Joe Close and Elliot Kelso both ran in the U/17s, with Close clocking 8:09 in 80th and Kelso a few seconds ahead in 60th place in 8:00. Well done all who took part. Morpeth Harriers are very keen to recruit marshals for the new Morpeth 10k event, taking place on Sunday 2 June.
The club will be reimbursed by the event organisers per marshal - a valuable boost to our funds. If you are not planning to run, please can you consider giving up a couple of hours to support the club as a marshal. This will bring much needed funds to the club, as well as enabling Morpeth Harriers to put on a well-supported event. Full briefing and hi-vis will be supplied. Please note that young athletes can also help, and will be placed near the finish on duties such as handing out water. If you are able to support the event, please contact Kevin Bray, who is coordinating our efforts, on kevinbray7924@outlook.com. For more information about the race, see here. Lakeland Trails
John Butters and Lindsey Quinn made the journey over to Hawskhead to take part in the Lakeland Trails series. Run in some pretty dreadful conditions, the 16k race was won by Jonny Cox of Eden Runners in a time of 1 hour 18 minutes 22 seconds, with Aisling Wall 1st Female and 11th overall in 1:19:12. John was 8th overall and 5th O/40 in 1:18:22, and Lindsey 63rd and 10th Female in 1:36:57. Full results here. Sand Dancer 10k The annual Sand Dancer 10 took place over the traditional course from Gypsy Green South through the dunes. Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor was the win in 33 minutes dead, with O/45 Claire Simpson from host club South Shields Harriers 1st Female and 16th overall in 41:33. Mike Winter was first back for Morpeth, 24th in 42:39. David Nicholson had a good morning also, coming back in 45:14, but with age categories 10 year, unable to pick up the O/65 prize. Welcome back also Richard Kirby, after a long spell on the sidelines with injury, 92nd in 51:02 but no doubt just happy to be competing again. Full results here. |
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