Several Morpeth Harriers were in action at the Northern Schools Inter Counties Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday 17 June.
The competition is the final steppingstone for the English Schools Championships, which this year will be held in Birmingham over the weekend of 30 June and 1 July. Specialist throwers Edward Gardiner and Alexandria Hodgson, both of them coached by Neil Ellerby, are known to have secured their places in the finals. Gardiner eventually won his selection for Birmingham on Saturday, with his final throw in the Senior Boys Discus competition, in pretty arduous conditions, being forced to go through an hour's delay in starting on the back field. He threw an excellent 41.30m, his best ever effort with the 1.75k discus to gain the entry standard. Hodgson finished second to Cumbria’s Millie McQueen in the Junior Girls Hammer competition, but had done enough in the previous week's County Championships to earn her place at the National Finals. Hodgson threw 34.45m, to McQueen’s winning throw of 35.22m, both girls being well adrift of their best performances. She also competed in the Discus, finishing fourth with a best of 21.02m. Running as a Senior Boy, Liam Roche won the Intermediate Boys 1500m in 4m09.30s from Gosforth Harrier Ethan Bond (4m13.1s), with Morpeth club colleague Bertie Marr finishing third in 4m14.5s. Oliver Tomlinson finished tenth in 4m31.1s. Also running as a Senior Boy, Joe Dixon repeated his County Schools performance from the previous week, when winning the Intermediate Boys 3000m in 9m03.2s, albeit a little slower this time round. Morpeth Intermediate Boy Elliot Kelso finished third in 9m13.6s. Morpeth's Amelia Hamlin won the Intermediate Girls 300m in 43.5s, and another Intermediate Girl winner from the club was Victoria Hodgson, elder sister of Alexandria, who secured victory in the 300m Hurdles in 47.3s. Hodgson also finished second in the 80m Hurdles in 12.8s. In the Intermediate Boys 800m, Joseph Close finished a very close second to Cumbrian Senior Boy James Bowen. Close posted a time of 2m01.1s, which was equal to the winner’s time. In the Intermediate Boys 400m Hurdles, Morpeth’s Ben Hope finished third in 63.1s. Morpeth’s Amy Longstaff finished fourth in the Intermediate Girls 100m second heat of three, and her time of 13.5s was eleventh fastest overall. Having her first taste of Schools Inter County competition, Junior Girl Abigail Kahn finished eighth in the Long Jump, with a best of 4.12m. In the overall competition, Northumberland finished second behind North Yorkshire, only losing out by nine points. Fourteen members of Morpeth Harriers competed at the third North East Grand Prix Track and Field meeting, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium, on the evening of Wednesday 14 June.
Under 17 Man Daniel Burrow enjoyed two race victories on the night, firstly in the sixth heat of the 100m, where he posted a time of 13.44s. This was Daniel’s first outing in the sprint event. Later in the evening, he took three seconds off is previous best, in the sixth and final heat of the 400m, posting a time of 60.57s. Another Morpeth Harrier in action in the 100m was Under 20 Woman Ellie Wickens, who took a fraction off her best time, when she finished second in Heat 4 in 13.67s. The main event of the evening was the Stan Long Mile, held in honour of the legendary Gateshead Harriers Coach, who had guided Brendan Foster during his illustrious career. Four athletes from Morpeth Harriers took part in the fastest of seven miles. The race was won by Tynedale’s Thomas Joyce, who crossed the finish line in 4m16.17s. First to finish from Morpeth Harriers was William Cork, who was tackling the four-lap distance for the first time, and he finished fourth in 4m23.72s. One place behind William was his Under 17 Club Colleague Joseph Close, who took a massive eighteen seconds off his previous figures with his time of 4m24.07s. Not far behind him was another Morpeth Harrier, Under 20 Man Will Devere-Owen who clocked 4m24.50s, which for him, presented a season’s best. Another Morpeth finisher in the fastest event was Bertie Marr, who was eleventh in 4m29.52s, taking four seconds off his previous figures. In the second fastest Mile event, Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson, and Elliot Mavir, both of them Under 17 Men, finished eleventh and thirteenth in 4m47.45s, and 4m55.88s respectively, both of these being new personal bests by nine and 37 seconds. In the fifth fastest Mile, Morpeth Under 20 Woman Caitlin Flanagan produced a superb run to finish third in 5m19.85s, taking 17 seconds off her previous figures for the distance. Another Morpeth Harrier in this race was Under 15 Girl Emma Tomlinson, who improved her time by nine seconds, when finishing fifteenth in 5m48.58s. Brother and sister Thomas and Molly Roche, both of them Under 15 athletes, finished sixth and thirteenth respectively in the sixth fastest Mile. Thomas produced a first-time effort of 5m45.87s, and Molly clocked a season’s best of 5m59.73s. Zoe Tomlinson, younger sister of Ollie and Emma, finished tenth in the seventh Mile, in 6m20.98s, this being the Under 13 Girls first attempt at the distance. Another Morpeth first-timer in the event was Under 15 Girl Charlotte Marshall, who finished fourteenth in 6m57.58s. Discus thrower Ed Gardiner had a big result at the weekend, throwing a big new personal best and in the process achieving the demanding qualification standard for the English Schools Championships in two weeks time.
Having won the Northumberland Schools County Championships already, action moved this weekend to the Northern Schools Inter Counties Championships at Gateshead Stadium. Difficulties caused by delays to the start and a rising headwind were further added to by all throwers being told they would only get a maximum of three and not the usual four attempts. Despite this, practice throws by Ed still looked good, and after two promising early efforts, the first of which saw him go straight into the lead, his final throw really flew, with the small but knowledgeable crowd already applauding. Ed achieved a distance of 41.30 metres, his first over 40m throw and a pb by nearly three metres. The throw also saw him reach the qualification standard for the English Schools Championships at Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games stadium on 29 June, where he will be ranked 11th. The late qualification meant some further anxiety for Ed and father Alan until his selection was confirmed, but this finally arrived at the start of the week. The achievement comes after a very difficult winter, badly disrupted due to injuries which all meant little if any training could be done, as well as Ed moving up to the heavier 1.75 kg weight for the first time. A real tribute to Ed and all the team around him and a lesson in the importance of persistence and hard work to us all. The England Athletics U23 and U20 Championships took place on the newly-laid track at Chelmsford at the weekend with representative places in the European Championships at stake.
Despite some windy and wet weather, there were good performances all round, including that of Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard, back in the country from study in America. Rory finished 2nd in the Men’s 5000m in a time of 14:10.15 behind race winner Will Barnicoat of Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow who clocked 14:09.20 with Leeds City’s Josh Dickinson 3rd in 14:11.04. Rory has now been selected to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 10000m at the European U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland next month (13-16 July). Several Young Athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the annual Northumberland Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday 10 June.
One of the most notable performers was East Northumberland Junior Girl Alexandria Hodgson, who won both the Discus and Hammer competitions. In the Hammer, she not only achieved a most prized English Schools Standard, with her best throw of 38.73m, she also broke a Championship record that former Morpeth Harrier Jessica Gardiner had set in 2018, by almost three metres. She also won the Discus by a narrow margin of 68cm from Newcastle’s Rebecca Etherington, producing a best throw of 20.87m. Elder Sister Victoria Hodgson also had a taste of victory in the Inter Girls 80m Hurdles, producing a winning time of 12.8s. She also finished second to North Tyneside’s Senna Gorvett in the 300m Hurdles, who produced a Championship best performance of 45.6s. Hodgson’s time was 48.1s. There were further event wins for Morpeth Harriers Edward Gardiner, Joe Dixon, Elliot Kelso, Joseph Close, and Ben Hope. Gardiner, representing East Northumberland, won the Senior Boys Discus, producing a best effort of 36.20m. Dixon, also representing East Northumberland, won the Senior Boys 3000m in 8m59.5s. Elliot Kelso, representing Tynedale, won the Intermediate Boys 1500m in 4m23.9s, finishing just ahead of Morpeth Harriers club colleague Oliver Tomlinson of East Northumberland who was second in 4m29.8s. Another Morpeth Harrier Harry Armstrong, representing North Northumberland was ninth in 4m59.9s. Joseph Close, representing North Northumberland, comfortably won the Intermediate Boys 800m in 2m03.4s. Representing East Northumberland, Ben Hope won the Intermediate Boys 400m Hurdles in 62.8s. Hope was also third in the 100m Hurdles, posting a time of 20.3s. Staying with the Intermediate Boys, Oliver Tomlinson was fifth in the Javelin with a best throw of 20.29m. Intermediate Girl Amy Longstaff of East Northumberland finished second in the Final of the 100m in 13.2s. After winning her 200m heat in 28.2s, Longstaff finished third in a hotly contested final in 28.3s. East Northumberland’s Amelia Hamlin finished a very close second to Newcastle’s Poppy Wilde, in the Inter Girls 300m Final, being rewarded with the same time of 43.2s. Morpeth trio Harrison Scott, Jack Dinning and Connor Phillips all competed in the Inter Boys sprints. After running his 100m heat in 11.8s, Scott finished seventh in the final in 12.3s. Dinning unfortunately went out in his 100m heat in 11.9s. Scott clocked 24.4s in his 200m Heat, and Phillips clocked 25.0s alongside him, however Phillips lined up in the later run final without Scott, clocking 25.1s for seventh place. Other Morpeth Harriers results were as follows. Junior Boys 200m: Heat, William Hodgson (East) (3rd) 26.0s, Final 26.8s (6th) Junior Boys 300m: Final, James Trotter (3rd) 41.6s, Junior Boys 800m Final; Ben Moll (4th) 2m21.1s, Junior Boys 1500m: Final, George Mavir, (8th) 4m51.0s Junior Boys Triple Jump: William Hodgson (6th) 9.82m Junior Girls 800m: Final, Megan Potrac (8th) 2m47.5s Junior Girls 1500m: Final, Molly Roche (6th) 5m36.8s. Several athletes will await word of a place in next week’s Inter Counties Championships, also being held at Gateshead, the final steppingstone to the English Schools Championships, being held in Birmingham in the summer. |
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