The annual Loughborough International on Sunday 20th May 2018, saw a reunion of two Morpeth Harrier club colleagues in the Men’s 3000m event, with Under 20 athlete Rory Leonard,
and Under 23 athlete Scott Beattie, currently studying in Tulsa, America, both facing the starter. In an event won by Scotland’s Sol Sweeney, who posted a finishing time of 8m06.90s, Leonard finished tenth in 8,18.80s, with Beattie coming home in twelfth place, posting a finishing time of 8m26.24s. This represented a new personal best for Leonard, who took approximately six seconds off his previous best for the distance, which he had set in a BMC event in Leeds at the end of April. It was also a new personal best for Beattie, taking around two seconds off his previous figures, set at Stretford in August 2016. Morpeth Harrier Carl Avery finished eighth in the Great Manchester 10k Road Race on Sunday 20th May 2018, posting a seasons best time of 30m48s, eighteen seconds adrift of his lifetime best,
and just over two minutes adrift of race winner Mo Farah. Club colleague Sam Hancox finished fifteenth in 31m40s. Sam’s father Rob, also from Morpeth Harriers, finished 103rd in 37m15s. Three athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in action at the opening meeting of the series of North East Regional BMC events, held at Chester Le Street’s Riverside Athletics Track, on the evening of Monday 14th May 2018.
Just over 48 hours after clinching the North Eastern Counties Under 20 Men’s 1500m Gold Medal, Kieran Hedley was back on track to produce a new personal best of 1m55.78s, when finishing third in the fastest 800m race, taking just under two seconds off his previous figures, which he had set at Jarrow, almost a year ago. Hedley’s younger sister Rhiannon, who had also competed at the weekend championships, got a little bit closer to her best, which she had posted at Hexham last year, as she finished a close second to Chester Le Street’s Lucy Scothern in the eighth fastest race, as she clocked a seasons best of 2m22.80s. Sam Hancox had his first outing of the year on the track and could feel well satisfied with his clocking of 2m02.20s, as he finished fifth in the third fastest race, taking four seconds off his previous best for 800m, which he had clocked in June 2015 at a previous BMC meeting, which was held at Maiden Castle. Meanwhile on the following Tuesday night, (15th May) Morpeth’s Phillip Winkler was also in BMC action, as he finished fifth in the fourth fastest 800m race at Stretford, Manchester, in the Gold Standard meeting, posting a brand new personal best of 1m56.56s, taking nearly a second off his previous figures. Finishing an overall excellent seventh in a time of 37m09s, Morpeth Harrier Jane Hodgson won the annual Alnwick Harriers Les Allcorn 10k Women’s race for the second year in succession on the sunny evening of Tuesday 15th May 2018, in the Northumberland Town’s picturesque Hulne Park.
She was a good 5m20s clear of her closest rival Michelle Bartlett of Banbury Harriers. A total of 152 finishers faced the starter, including fellow Morpeth Harriers Richard Kirby (43rd) 44m25s, Gary Mason (49th) 44m55s, Alex Zeller (64th) 47m08s, Norman Clark (74th) 48m28s, and Jane Kirby (76th) 48m56s. At the recent North Eastern Counties Track and Field Championships held at Middlesbrough Sports Village,
the event sponsors Start Fitness provided awards for respective Male and Female athletes over the two days of the competition. Morpeth Harriers & AC’s Andrew Knight won the Saturday Male award for his excellent championship best performance in the Under 17 Men’s Shot Putt. Andrew Knight not only broke the previous figures once, which were his own, but on all six of his days efforts, a superb achievement indeed, and very worthy of his reward. |
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