Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers took part in the annual Open Indoor Pentathlon Championships, which also included the North-East Counties Championships, held at Gateshead College Indoor facility on Sunday March 19th 2017. In the Under 15 Boys event, Alfie Ward scored a total of 1520 points over the five events,
60m (8.60s), 60m Hurdles (11.52s), Shot Putt (5.66m), Long Jump (4.62m), and High Jump (1.36m), which saw him finish fifth overall, and third in the North-Eastern Championship, securing him a well-earned Bronze medal. His 60m was a new personal best performance. Amy Lott finished 13th overall, and 8th in the Under 15 Girls North East Championship, which was well contested. Lott secured a total of 2218 points over the five events, 60m Hurdles (9.67s), 60m (8.60s), Long Jump (3.50m), High Jump (1.27m), and Shot Putt (5.76m). 60m Hurdles, 60m, Long Jump, and High Jump performances all represented new personal bests. The fifth and final meeting of Indoor Standards events was
held at Gateshead College on Thursday 16th March, and seven athletes from Morpeth Harriers were involved in respective competitive action. On the track, Under 15 Girl athlete Amy Lott was fastest in the Under 15 Girls 60m Hurdles with 9.99s, and was fifth fastest in her age group in the flat 60m with 8.72s. Fellow Morpeth Harrier Olivia Hawkes was sixteenth fastest in the Under 15 Girls flat 60m with 9.53s. In the Under 13 Boys 60m, Koffi Avornyo produced new figures of 8.75s, which was marginally the fastest in his age group, and the night proved to be extra special for him, when he produced a new personal best when clearing 1.45m in the High Jump. Olivia Gent was fourth fastest Under 13 Girl in the 60m, when she clocked 9.90s. Making his Indoor debut, Alfie Ward was second fastest in the Under 15 Boys 60m Hurdles with 10.65s, and was tenth fastest in the flat 60m with 8.65s. Also, making his competitive debut, Alfie’s younger brother Fintan was second in the Under 13 Boys Shot Putt, producing a best effort of 4.35s. North Eastern Champion Ethan Stephenson cleared 1.60m to win the Under 15 Boys High Jump. Northumberland Girls were very marginally the best of the county’s performers
at the annual English Schools Cross Country Championships, held at Norfolk Showground in Norwich, on Saturday 18th March 2017. They finished first amongst four counties who were separated in a separate Group D, by terms of county size, ahead of Cumbria, Northamptonshire, and Shropshire, and for this they were presented an aggregate trophy based on total scores accumulated. In the Boys events, Northumberland finished second, just behind Cumbria, but ahead of Shropshire and Hereford and Worcestershire. Amongst the Northumberland squads facing the starter in the six programmed events, were twelve athletes from Morpeth Harriers, four on the Female side, and eight from the Male section. Holly Peck (Junior Girls 3.25k), and Rory Leonard (Intermediate Boys 6k) were certainly the pick of the best Northumberland performers. In Peck’s case, she finished an excellent 21st, just behind fellow Northumbrian Innes Curran of Gateshead Harriers in 20th place, although there was nothing between them at the finish line. The pair led the Northumberland squad home to 19th team place. Also amongst the counters was Morpeth Harrier Rhiannon Hedley, who finished 184th, and was fourth home for the squad in what was her first ever English Schools. The Junior Girls event had a total finishing field of 344, and also in action was Morpeth Harrier Lily Heaton, who was outside the scoring counts in 288th place. Rory Leonard was one of four Morpeth Harriers competing in the Intermediate Boys event, as he led Northumberland home to 18th team place, by finishing in an excellent 19th spot. Fellow Morpeth Harrier Taylor Glover was second home from the county in 48th place. The other two Morpeth Harriers in the event were Daniel Dixon and Matthew Waterfield, who were fifth and sixth counters in 202nd and 220th places respectively. In the Intermediate Girls 3.75k event, Morpeth’s Gracie Hufton ran well to finish as fifth counter in 245th place for a Northumberland squad which finished 28th. Kieran Hedley led Northumberland’s Senior Boys home to 31st team place in their 7.2k event when finishing in 55th place. Fellow Morpeth Harrier Jake Masterman was third counter in 152nd place. Northumberland Junior Boys finished 25th in their 4k event with Morpeth Harrier Thomas Cunningham finishing 150th as the squads third counter. In his first English Schools appearance, fellow Morpeth athlete Ben Walker did well to finish 315th, but outside the scoring counts. Conditions underfoot were very firm, on a relatively flat dry course, however prevailing winds gave runners a fairly stiff test in open stretches. Last weekend was certainly a busy one competitively for Morpeth Harrier Carl Avery.
On Saturday 11th March he represented the North East at the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Loughborough, where he finished an excellent tenth. The following day he travelled a few miles further South to compete in the Bedford Sprint Duathlon, where he won the Senior event by posting a total time of 53m45s, which involved a combination of firstly a run which took him 15m12s for 5k, a transition to bike, which took 29m29s for 20 mile, followed by a finish run of 8m16s, over a 3k distance. The two transmission periods were 21 and 24 seconds respectively. Avery, wearing the colours of his sponsors Envy Epinay of France, won with 31 seconds to spare over his closest rival Tom Crouch, with third place going to Peter Cooke, a further fifty seconds adrift. Fellow Morpeth Harrier Steve Patterson also performed well, finishing in 24th place overall, and was fourth in the Over 35 Men’s category. Patterson posted a total time of 57m46s, with combinations of 17m12s for 5k run, 29m49s for 20-mile bike, and 9m40s for 3k run. His transition periods were 32 and 31 seconds respectively. Ian Harding of Morpeth Harriers finished 4th in the Finchley 20
Mile Road Race in North London on Sunday 12th March 2017, posting a finishing time of 1h 52mins. |
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