The Club Championships for Young Athletes saw a record turn out by some 63 runners in total over the traditional one lap course of Lancaster Park (approximately 2.25 kilometres).
The first race incorporated the U/11 and U/13 Boys and Girls races, with 29 athletes in total taking part. First home was U/13 Evan Line in a fine time of 8 minutes 15 seconds with fellow U/13 Emma Tomlinson next in in 8m 48s. Following them, U/13s Euan Laude (8m 56s) and Daniel Vermaas (9m 00s) had an excellent tussle for 2nd and 3rd in their categories, with Laude just winning out. Faye Heatley ((9m 10s) and Sophie Pledger (9m 49s) were 2nd and 3rd U/13 Girls. Confusing the scorers mightily were Thompsons Jack and Jacob (no relations) 1st and 2nd in the U/11 with the same times (9m 06s) as well as the same surnames! Lochlan Dungait was 3rd in 9m 23s. Lucy Heatley (9m 43s), Lucy Raper (10m 08s) and Zoe Tomlinson (10m 10s) were 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the U/11 Girls. Although there were slightly fewer runners in Race 2, the competition was, if anything, even more intense with U/17s Will De Vere Owen and Bertie Marr battling it out all the way to the line, with Will winning by a margin of only one second (6m 29s). Fellow U/17 Ryan Davies was 3rd home in 6m 35s, with U/15 Oliver Calvert only one second behind him. Oli Tomlinson was 2nd U/15 (7m 20s) and Ben Moll 3rd (8m 23s). For the Girls, U/17 Tabby Robson ran the fastest time of the night (8m 24s) with Caitlin Flanagan 2nd (8m 50s) and Kate Kennedy 3rd (9m 22s). In the U/15s, Molly Roche was 1st home in 8m 57s, with Iris Dungait 2nd (9m 02s) and Megan Potrac 3rd (9m 04s). Well done to all who took part and made it such a competitive and successful evening. Special thanks to Hemant Desai, who once again provided use of his drive (and lawn), to Julie Roche who recorded the times, and to Mickey Groves and George Patterson who recorded times and started. Click here for full results Morpeth athletes claimed three podium finishes at the Kielder Marathon weekend of events, including a gold-medal double in the 10k.
Mark Snowball won Saturday’s 10k, which took place in heavy rain, in a time of 35:40, comfortably ahead of his closest challenger, Paul Turnbull of Tyne Bridge Harriers (37:27). And Rachelle Falloon – the club’s only other runner among the 540 participants - made it a Morpeth double as she was the first woman home and seventh overall in 39:33. The skies brightened substantially the following day as Mark returned for the weekend’s headline marathon event – a challenging, undulating full circuit of the reservoir. Understandably taking it a bit steadier this time, Mark finished in a time of 3:39:49 (34th place and 19th in the senior men category). Aberdeen-based couple Kyle and Debbie Greig celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary in style by winning the male and female races respectively, and justifying the long trip down from north east Scotland. Kyle finished in 2.45.46, just under three minutes ahead of last year’s winner Russell Maddams of Keswick AC, with Debbie smashing the course record for a woman in 3:07:10, which earned her 5th place overall. There were 539 finishers in the marathon. First home for Morpeth in 3:12:14 was Kielder veteran Andrew Hebden who came 6th overall and 2nd men’s V40, and the club’s first female finisher was Anna Wright in 3:50:13 (62nd and 2nd women’s V40). Other Morpeth Harriers taking part included Matthew Briggs who was acting as a pacemaker for a friend (53rd in 3:45:12); Jane Kirby (81st in 3:56:25); and Mhairi Line (207th in 4:28:49). There was more Morpeth success in Sunday’s half marathon where John Butters claimed 2nd place and 1st V45 in an impressive time of 1:17:47. Richard Castledine was Morpeth’s only other competitor in the half marathon, finishing 91st in 1:46:17. There was just one Morpeth Harrier taking part in Sunday’s junior events - Steven Craske finishing 5th in the U16s race in 07:03. The annual awards night for the 2022 North East Grand Prix is to be held at Gateshead Stadium on Monday (3 October).
The event will be held in the hospitality suite from 7pm where the following Morpeth Harriers are due to receive awards: UNDER 17 MEN: Will Devere-Owen (2nd) UNDER 20 MEN: Joe Anderson (5th) SENIOR MEN: Alex Brown (5th) and Connor Marshall (6th) ATHLETE OF THE MATCH Meeting 6, Ollie Calvert (3000m 9m15.31s, (Grade 1) ) The main awards will be presented by Under 20 International Joy Eze and the guest speaker will be JOy's coach Michael Donnelly. For more details click here. After Saturday's Harrier League action, attention switched to the other side of the Pennines on Sunday, with the club fielding three Junior teams and one Senior in the Northern Athletics Road Relays held at Sport City, Manchester - and being rewarded with a wonderful gold medal and two top ten finishes.
The team Gold came courtesy of the club’s flying Under 17 Men, whose hard fought victory after three legs put them ahead of nearest rivals Rotherham and Salford Harriers. Ryan Davies ran the team’s fastest time for the 3700 metre distance, recording 11 minutes 25 seconds, and he was followed by Bertie Marr (11m 37s) and Will de Vere Owen (11m 39s), with the team clocking 34:51. On finishing 1st, Will brandished a Morpeth Harriers flag - leaving a customarily loquacious George Patterson, on announcing duties, almost lost for words! Remarkably, such was the strength of the performance that Davies, Marr and De Vere Owen ran the day’s 2nd, 4th and 5th fastest times of the day. It was a richly-deserved reward for a closely-knit group of athletes who have worked very hard for many years under the guidance of coach Mike Bateman and who were most unfortunate to miss out in a number of competitions as U/15s due to Covid enforced cancellations. Rotherham Harriers, a club who enjoyed a very successful day all round, were in 2nd place in 35:19. The club’s U/15 team of Ben Moll (12:46), Oliver Calvert (10:54) and Oliver Tomlinson (11:27) also ran well to finish in 6th place in their 3100m race, and were only just over 30 seconds off a medal, with teams from the North West dominating. The U/15 Girls team of Molly Roche (14:34), Megan Potrac (15:01)and Charlotte Marshall (15:20) also performed gamely, finishing in 30th place overall, and will undoubtedly have benefited from the challenge. Rotherham were the winners. Worth a mention also for Emma Tomlinson, who was a sole runner for the club in the Under 13 girls, clocking a highly respectable 13:45 for the 3100m distance, particularly so after competing in the cross country the day before. Penultimate event, the Women’s Relay over 4 legs, was won by Salford Harriers and AC in 1:32:29, with Leeds City in 2nd and Vale Royal 3rd. North East involvement came courtesy of NSP, 14th in 1:42:44 with Tyne Bridge 28th in 1:46:45. Last event of the day was the Senior Men’s six stage relay, with Morpeth looking for at least a top ten finish and qualification for the National event in two weeks time. Dominated by Leeds City AC - who, in addition to winning in a time of 1 hour 59 minutes 17 seconds for the 6 x 6.4km distance, also remarkably had teams in 4th and 7th - Morpeth gave a strong account of themselves to come home in 8th place overall in 2:05:46 and were once again first from the North East of England, with Hallamshire Harriers in 2nd place (2:01:54) and Blackburn Harriers and AC 3rd (2:02:17). Sam Hancox got the club off to a decent start, with 20:33 on the keenly contested 1st leg for 16th place. Finn Brodie moved up to 6th on leg 2 with 20:19, and Kieran Reay had the club up to 5th, its highest place of the day after leg 3, with 20:48. Debutant Peter Smallcombe clocked 21:41 on leg 4 for 7th place, with Connor Marshall staying there on leg 5 (21:20) and Matty Briggs on the final leg only losing one place with his 21:05. The team finally finished in 8th position to comfortably make the National event at Sutton Park in two weeks time. Fastest time of the day was run by Hugo Milner of Derby AC with 19:17, although NSP’s Dave Green, currently in fine form, ran the 4th fastest with 19:46. (The Poly A team were 28th, with Gateshead 22nd, Sunderland 26th and Tyne Bridge 40th.) The first fixture in the North East Harrier League season on Saturday saw over 1,300 runners involved at Wrekenton, with Morpeth enjoying three team and three individual victories over the ten-event programme. First up were as customary the Under 11s races, with some 68 contesting the Boys event and 42 the Girls. Getting their first taste of competition were Jacob Thompson, 1st back for Morpeth in 13th, Jack Thompson (no relation, but enough to confuse the entries) in 17th and Eli McSparron 53rd. In the corresponding Girls race, Lucy Raper was 6th and, in her first race in blue and white, Zoe Tomlinson, younger sister of Emma and Oliver, 12th. The first of the individual victories came in the Under 13 Boys race, with Ewan Line winning from Slow Pack by a narrow margin of only 4 seconds from his nearest rival. Supported by Daniel Vermaas in 25th and William Hawkins in 52nd, with Evan Laude 53rd from Fast Pack running the club’s fastest time of the day and William Mcbryde 54th, the team managed to come in 7th place overall it what looks like it will be a very keenly contested age group, with no less than twelve clubs fielding complete teams. There was also a full team in the U/13 Girls, with Faye Heatley having a strong run to come in 2nd from Slow Pack. Emma Tomlinson made 16th from Fast Pack, with Sophie Pledger completing the scoring count in 26th and Grace Cunningham 46th from Fast. The team made 3rd place and certainly look competitive for the rest of the season. 3rd place was also the position achieved by the U/15 Boys, despite the absence of a strong outfit in this category who were down to run in Manchester the next day. Stephen Craske was 13th, and good packing saw Dan Burrow come in 15th and Harry Armstrong 16th, the latter two both rewarded in fact with the same time. The Northern Relays also meant the absence of our U/15 Girls team, many of whom have now moved up from the U/13 category at which they were so successful last season. Hopefully, they can start to play catch-up in the next fixture. The first team victory came courtesy of the U/17 Boys, also missing a whole team down to run the next day, to finish ahead of rivals Gosforth Harriers. In his first outing in this age group, Joe Close led the team home from Slow Pack with Elliot Mavir finishing in 7th from Slow and Elliot Kelso running strongly to come home in 9th from Fast Pack. Disappointingly, Tabby Robson, having moved up from the U/15s, was the club’s only competitor in the U17/U20 race, coming home strongly in 15th place. With the club having medalled in this division last year, a full team over the remaining fixtures would mean there is every chance of repeating this success, but it is down to the runners to turn out. Best turn out of the day for the club was once again the Senior and Veteran Women, with no less than twelve Harriers taking part. Their resounding victory in the approximately 4-mile race put down a strong marker for the rest of the season, showing they have a real chance of winning the overall title from last year’s winners Elswick Harriers.
The team were led home by veteran Morag Stead from Slow Pack in 25:22, thankfully now back in competitive action and finishing in 2nd place behind race winner Katie Iliffe of Durham City Harriers (24:56). Rachelle Falloon was in next, finishing in 13th from Medium Pack (26:16) and she was followed in by last year’s overall champion Cat Macdonald, who once again run the day’s fastest time of 24 minutes 3 seconds. With Jane Hodgson only 14 seconds and one place behind Cat, the team recorded only 21 points, a big 24 points ahead of nearest on the day rivals Jarrow and Hebburn AC (45) with Heaton Harriers a distant 3rd (71). It was also good to see Robyn Bennett back in competitive action, 19th from Slow in 29:28, with Lorna Macdonald 29th from Medium in 27:27. Mhairi Line was 38th from Slow (30:27), with the next four for the club all having to run from Fast Pack after last season: Lindsey Quinn, 118th (27:24); Lizzie Rank, 134th (27:41); Sarah Lawson, 167th (28:14), and Julie Vermaas, 256th (29:42). Fran Naylor was 319th in 37:04 and Margaret Macdonald, 334th in 37:30. Some 441 finished in total, the big field showing how strong the event has become. Final race of the day, the Senior Men’s three lap, 6 miler, saw both individual and team victories for the club with three of the club’s U/20 youngsters stepping up with aplomb to the Senior ranks for the first time. The win came courtesy of KEVI sixth former Matty Walton in front of some very proud parents. Always up with the leaders from the gun, Matty ran a superbly measured race to come home with a final margin of some 20 seconds over his nearest Slow Pack rival Stefan Szaclewski of Durham, while also doing enough to stay ahead of England international Sam Charlton of Wallsend, who ran the day’s 2nd fastest time from Medium Pack to come home 3rd. Matty was supported by fellow KEVI student James Tilley, 4th from Slow in 33:02 with Ralph Robson, another running his first race with the Seniors, in 16th (34:54). John Butters worked his way steadily forward as the race progressed, finishing finally in 11th overall in 34:07, and with Anthony Liddle 29th, also from Slow (37:04) and Mark Snowball completing the team count from Fast Pack in 110th (34:39), there was a 37 point margin to nearest rivals Elvet Striders and Tyne Bridge Harriers. Anthony Janetta just missed out on being a counter, 132nd from Medium in 37:32, Lee Bennett, still out of Fast Pack in his 50s, 190th in 36:11 and Stephen Johnstone 317th in 44:07. Overall, there were a whopping 542 finishers despite many clubs losing runners to Manchester. Fastest time of the day was by our old friend Jarlath Mckenna, guesting here for Bristol and West, and recording 30:14 from Fast. However, another guest, William Cork of Brighton and Hove AC, ran the day’s 3rd fastest time behind Mckenna and Charlton of 30:38 in his introduction to the NEHL’s unique pack system, and the club looks forward to his imminent transfer to Morpeth. With the next fixture at Druridge Bay in less than two weeks time, the promotion to higher packs of so many counters does mean that, despite an excellent team performance, the club will need to draw on the full range of its available athletes as the season progresses. But, for now, congratulations to all and a big thanks also to all officials, to host club Saltwell Harriers, and to Start Fitness for continued sponsorship. See here for Stuart Whitman's gallery of images from the event. |
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