In his very first outing in a Morpeth Harriers vest, and his very first track 10,000metre race, new club acquisition Mark Long certainly made himself known, not only to his new club colleagues, but also the North East athletics fraternity, as he carved out a superb win over 25 laps at Monkton Stadium on Wednesday 18th April 2018, to clinch the area championship. Long ran a very close race alongside 2017 Champion Greg Jayasuriya of Middlesbrough & Cleveland in pursuit of a glorious Gold medal, before heading off on his own with around seven laps remaining, to eventually cross the finish line, posting a time of 32m11.22s, winning by a margin of just over thirty three seconds over Jayasuriya, who in turn took the Silver medal, ahead of Durham City’s Robin Linten, who was a further 25 seconds adrift. Fourth place, and just three seconds adrift of a Bronze medal was Morpeth Veteran John Butters (33m13.17s), who just managed to hold off Michael Joyeux of Quakers in a close finish. Long, who belongs Northern Ireland, and also runs for City of Derry, was very delighted with his performance, he had hoped for a slightly quicker time, however is hoping to make it a North Eastern Counties track double by lining up in the 5000metres at the forthcoming championships, scheduled to be held at Middlesbrough in Mid-May.
He is also hoping to be able to link up with his new Morpeth Harriers club-mates at forthcoming championships such as the Autumn relays, and showing form as present, he will no doubt prove to be a valuable asset indeed. Three of Morpeth Harriers Throws specialists were in winning action at the Gateshead Harriers Open Medal Meeting, held at Gateshead Stadium on Sunday 15th April 2018.
Andrew Knight certainly maintained his excellent early season form in the Under 17 Men’s Shot Putt, by considerably improving on his lifetime personal best achieved in the previous weeks Kieran Maxwell Memorial Meeting at Darlington. Not once, not twice, but in three of his six allotted Putts, he managed 16.59m, 16.75m, and a superb 16.96m, which will sit as his new best, all that remains to be seen is, can he further improve. If the athlete and his coach Paul Reed have anything to do with it, he will, which will certainly make him uncatchable in his age group for the season. Closest to him in Sunday’s competition was North Shields Poly’s James Wordsworth, who on the day produced 13.79m. Knight will also face Wordsworth in the forthcoming NEYDL Division 1 campaign this season. Closest to Knight UK wise currently is Stratford’s Lewis Byng, who has a best of 15.79m, so the Morpeth strongman is certainly in impressive form to say the least. Although a little bit adrift of his best, Knight’s Morpeth club colleague Ruaridh Lang, also coached by Reed made a steady start, by hurling a best of 40.78m in the Under 20 Men’s Discus. Lang’s season will certainly improve as he seeks higher competition opportunities, in addition to any Morpeth commitments. In her first outing of the season, Bobbie Griffiths of Morpeth Harriers was a clear winner of the Women’s Javelin competition, with her best throw of 39.95m. Morpeth had only one-track athlete in action, with Olivia Gent clocking 14.90s in the Under 13 Girls 70m Hurdles, which saw her finish fourth, and 32.42s in the 200m, where she was ninth fastest. The curtain finally came down on the Start Fitness North East Harrier League season, with the holding of the annual presentation of awards at the sponsors premises on Grainger Street in Newcastle, on the evening of Thursday 12th April 2018. North Eastern Counties Athletics Association Chairman Bill McGuirk formally welcomed all those present and announced that he was very pleased that many were attending, as he congratulated officers of the league for their splendid efforts throughout the long season, where many challenges had again been faced with much determination, including very testing weather conditions, however all fixtures had been completed successfully. He also announced that the current sponsors Start Fitness would continue to support the League during the forthcoming 2018/19 season. On to the Presentation itself, conducted by Men’s Secretary John Stephens, which began with the individual awards. Amongst these awards were Morpeth Harriers, Holly Peck, who was second in the Under 15 Girls Grand Prix, Taylor Glover and Daniel Melling who were first and second in the Under 17 Men’s Grand Prix, and Emma Holt and Jane Hodgson, who were respective winners of the Senior and Veteran Women’s sections. Morpeth Harriers were also honoured by their Senior Men taking the Division 1 title, and Tom Inness and Richard Castledine were on hand to receive the winner’s trophy on behalf of the club.
Jane Hodgson accepted the Women’s Division 1 trophy on behalf of the club, and Taylor Glover and Daniel Melling accepted the Under 17 Men’s winner’s trophy. Tom Balsdon and Dylan Davies went forward to receive the Under 15 Boys winner’s trophy, making it a splendid night for the club. In addition family members Rowan, Robyn and Lee Bennett all won awards being third Under 15 Boy, first Under17/20 Woman, and first Veteran Man as Elswick Harriers, however along with mother Jill, Morpeth Harriers are very pleased to welcome them to the club as a new competing force, and look forward to working with them to achieve further success throughout 2018 and beyond. With a great deal of key last-minute withdrawals to cope with, Morpeth Harriers Men’s Team Manager David Swinburne still managed to get twelve runners from his ranks to toe the start line at the annual English Road Running Association 12 Stage Road Relays on Saturday 14th April 2018, which were held at a sunny Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. The twelve who ran, certainly did their best to pull off a respectable team performance, by finishing 30th out of 63 complete teams. However, Swinburne, who himself is to be praised for his efforts to name a travelling squad, and other club officials, still feel a little let down by those who failed to rally to their clubs call to compete in such a premier competition after promising they would, whilst not apportioning any particular blame, the club have again missed out on an opportunity of retaining their national status as a high performing organisation. Saturday still however brought its high points for Morpeth, they were the first of two competing North East clubs, Tyne Bridge Harriers finished six and a half minutes adrift in 34th spot. Morpeth Harriers were eighth home from the North of England, with key player Carl Avery getting them from 18th to 10th on the third leg, by posting their fastest Long Stage (5.38mile) time of the day of 26m42s. Sam Hancox, recent winner of the Blyth Valley 10k, had the squad well placed on the Long opening leg, when he finished thirteenth in 27m08s, the clubs second fastest Long Stage time of the day. Although posting his clubs fastest Short Stage (3.16mile) time of 16m39s, Under 20 athlete Kieran Hedley, lost a couple of places on the second leg, mainly due to faster runners around him, but kept his club within a challenging reach as he handed over to Avery. Fourth leg saw Alistair Douglass move back to fourteenth, as he posted 17m17s. On the fifth Long Leg, Ian Harding got the squad back up to twelfth, as he clocked 27m55s. Morpeth fell back to seventeenth on the sixth leg, courtesy of Jordan Scott as he posted 17m33s. The seventh and eighth legs for Morpeth were completed by Thomas Straughan (28m51s), and Tom Innes (17m45s), as they held nineteenth place throughout. Andrew Lawrence (30m22s), Rob Hancox (18m56s), Neil Gunstone (34m44s), and Graeme Thorpe (18m05s), all ran courageously over the final four legs, as they slipped gradually firstly to 25th, and finally to that 30th placing. The squads total time taken was 4hrs 41m57s, which was just over 24 minutes adrift of winners Tonbridge, who finished about ninety seconds ahead of London club Highgate Harriers, making it very much a Southern dominated affair, with 2017 winners Swansea finishing third, with Leeds City finishing fourth, as first from the North, and third English club. Meanwhile, Team boss Swinburne, is still hopeful that he will receive more positive commitment from his competing community in forthcoming events that are to be targeted. More Photos............. Posting a finishing time of 33m40s, Morpeth Harrier Karl Taylor finished second to
St Helens Sutton Athlete Matthew Crehan in the re-arranged St Helens 10k Road Race, on Sunday 15th April 2018, which had to be postponed in March because of wintry weather conditions. Taylor also finished second in the 2016 event and had been hoping for a victory on this occasion. |
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