Two Morpeth Harriers at opposite ends of the age spectrum were in action at the North East Counties Athletics Association Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead College over the weekend.
Both competed on the track on Sunday, and both won Championship medals for their efforts. Veteran Sprinter Trevor Hodgson, 52, certainly used his years of experience, as he beat athletes three or four years younger than himself to the finish line in the Masters 60m, to secure a Gold medal, posting a time of 7.66s, which was some way short of his best of 7.50s, which he had achieved at the same venue on 10th January in the Gateshead Indoor Series. Hodgson also retained his title which he had won 12 months previous in the Championships, where he achieved his previous best of 7.54s. He now embarks on a few weeks of intense Indoor action, commencing with the British Masters Championships this coming Sunday, followed by the Inter Area Championships the following Sunday, both of these being held at Lee Valley Indoor Centre in London. Hodgson then competes in the European Masters Championships, being held in Torun in Poland next month. Under 15 Girl Sophie Pledger, also certainly made a name for herself in her first year of Indoor competition, as she eventually claimed a most prized Bronze medal in her 60m event, after working her way meticulously through three rounds of extremely intense action. She excellently won her opening heat, by producing a superb new personal best of 8.27s, then went on to finish second in her Semi Final in 8.33s, but saved her best time for the final, where she yet again produced a new personal best of 8.24s, to claim the Bronze medal, only just missing out for Silver by a slender fraction. With two days of incessant rain forcing the cancellation of round 4 of the NEHL at Thornley Farm (to a generalised sigh of relief one imagines across much of the North East running community), elsewhere Morpeth Harriers were involved in some seriously fast competitive action.
The annual Armagh 5k – motto ‘Go Fast or Go Home’ – once again took over the streets of the Northern Irish town on Thursday evening, attracting many elite level runners from right across the UK and Europe. With snow having fallen during the day, this year’s race was held in some pretty cold and unfavourable conditions – although with some 17 sub-14 minute times and no less than 130 sub-15 runs you might not think so. At the sharp end of the field, James Young had an excellent run and was only beaten in the sprint to the line by Finland’s Topi Raitanen, the Finn clocking 13:49 to Young’s 13:50 with Sheffield and Dearne’s Alfie Manthorpe in 3rd. Six other Morpeth Harriers recorded sub-15 minute times, with Carl Avery next back, 58th in 14:28, one second and one place ahead of colleague Lawrence McCourt. Finn Brodie was 83rd in 14:39, Will Cork 111th in 14:49, Phil Winkler 118th in 14:54 and George Lowry 127th in 14:55, while Alistair Douglas (150th in 15:06) and Peter Smallcombe (153rd in 15:08) narrowly missed the 15-minute mark. The previous night saw two club members involved in the Ayo Falola Dream Mile at Lee Valley Indoor Athletics Centre just outside London. A rare opportunity to race over the distance indoors, the race was won by Joseph Tuffin in 3 minutes 59.24 seconds, with Morpeth’s Rory Leonard chasing him every inch of the way round the boards to clock his very first sub 4 minute mile in 3:59.55 in 3rd. It was an also a great return to form for Cameron Boyek, missing out on the 4 minute mark by the merest of 0.60 of a second when finishing 4th. Sunday saw Rory back in action, this time travelling to Monaco for an Elite 5k race round the streets of the Principality. Clearly in fantastic shape, this time he clocked 13:37.31 when finishing in 4th place, with the race won in 13:22 by Frenchman Yann Schrub. The time puts him in equal 7th on the UK all time list for the distance on the roads, and with the same time as legendary Elswick Harrier and Olympic Silver medallist over 10000m Mike McLeod. Something of an understatement, Rory would later note, ‘Good week ticked off…just getting started.’ Twelve athletes from Morpeth Harriers have been selected to take part in the annual UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, which also serves as the final of the UK Cross Challenge, which this year returns to Wollaton Park in Nottingham on Saturday 9 March.
North East Counties Cross Country Team Managers Stewy Bell (Male), and Lynn Cooper (Female), have finally confirmed their selections that are due to face the starter on the ten-event programme. Elliot Kelso will line up in the Under 17 Men’s event, and no less than five Morpeth members will toe the line in the Under 20 Men’s event, namely Joe Dixon, Liam Roche, Ethan Phillips, Bertie Marr, and William Devere-Owen. In the Senior Men’s event, Will Cork, Sam Hancox, Carl Avery, and Phil Winkler, have all won Bell’s Heart. Two Morpeth athletes have been selected by Cooper for the Women’s event. NECAA Cross Country Champion Millie Breese, despite having to miss the Northern Championships due to injury, is included in the Under 20 Women’s squad, and NECAA Cross Country Silver Medallist Catriona MacDonald is included in the Senior Women’s squad. In addition to the twelve selected, eight athletes from the club are in a standby list in case of any last-minute dropouts. They are Ben Moll (Under 15 Boys), Ollie Tomlinson and Joseph Close (Under 17 Men), Alex Brown, Connor Marshall, and Lawrence McCourt (Senior Men), Faye Heatley (Under 13 Girls), and Emma Tomlinson (Under 15 Girls). The next round of the North East Harrier League is scheduled to take place this Saturday at Thornley Farm, Peterlee, with the usual timings in place.
A challenging venue of course, but as ever, it’s all about the numbers turning out, and with the club having worked so hard to get near or indeed at the top of several categories, it would be a travesty to throw away all the hard work carried out so far – so let’s keep it going and get the numbers out. Any details of last minute cancellations will be immediately posted; for now, let’s assume it’s on please. There were five Morpeth Harriers braving some very tough conditions at the Rising Sun Country Park, Wallsend on Saturday at the North East Masters Athletics Association Cross Country Championships, and managing to bring back two individual Golds and one Silver medal between them.
The first of these came in the morning’s first race over two laps and 3.5 miles where O/40 Jane Hodgson once again showed what an almost unstoppable force she is over the country, defying the wind and the mud to come home in 22 minutes 48 seconds and recording a 44-second victory over her nearest rival Alex Sneddon of Jarrow and Hebburn (23:32) with Sunderland Harrier Ellie Reed (24:27) a distant third, both athletes also in the 0/ 35 category. The day’s second race, this time over three laps and 5.25 miles, was won by another Sunderland Harrier, Stephen Jackson, in 29:24 with his club colleague Liam Taylor second (29:38). Morpeth’s Rob Balmbra, like Hodgson a runner finding the mud very much to his liking, placed third overall in 30:49 but picked up the 2nd Over 35 prize with Taylor first. Ian Armstrong, who has gone from strength to strength since joining the club, was 9th overall but first O/50 competitor (34:18) with Andrew Hebden 19th and sixth O/40 in 35:53. Meanwhile coach Andrew Dippie continued his comeback, finishing in 48:11 for 74th place as 11th 0/60. |
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