Three Morpeth Harriers took part in the Podium 5k Road Race, held at Barrowford,
near Burnley in Lancashire, on the evening of Friday 15th June 2018. Mhairi MacLennan was first in the Women’s event, posting a time of 16m11s. In the Men’s Race, George Lowry finished second in 14m53s, and Nick McCormick finished fifth in 15m11s. Lowry took seven seconds off his previous 5k figures, MacLennan improved her best by a massive sixty-nine seconds, and for McCormick, he took fifteen seconds off the time he did in the event in March. Severe gale force winds seriously affected athlete’s performances at the BMC Regional Meeting, held at Beckett Park Athletics Facility, part of Leeds Metropolitan University on Thursday 14th June 2018. Five athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the meeting, and only Carl Avery was able to improve on previous 1500m figures. His previous best had been in 2015, where he had clocked 4m04.9s at a North East Grand Prix Meeting at Jarrow. Earlier this season, also at Jarrow, he had clocked 4m05.3s, however, bearing in mind the windy conditions he faced on Thursday, his posting of 4m02.69s was understandably pleasing, as he finished fifth in the fastest race. He was one place and just over a second behind Morpeth club colleague Kieran Hedley, who clocked 4m01.48s, nearly four seconds adrift of his best. Four seconds and one place down on Avery was Morpeth’s Taylor Glover (4m06.09s). Finishing at the rear of the field in eighth place was Morpeth’s Phillip Winkler, who clocked 4m15.08s. Rhiannon Hedley, younger sister of Kieran, certainly suffered in the Women’s 1500m. Competing against much older rivals, she finished in twelfth place, posting a time of 5m18.30s. Morpeth Harrier Scott Beattie further improved his 1500m best at the Watford Gold Standard Meeting on Wednesday 13th June 2018. The Tulsa University student has tackled the three and three-quarter lap event on no less than four occasions since early April and has improved his best by around three seconds from 2017, as he clocked 3m49.68s, when finishing sixteenth in a top-class A race field, that were led home by Cambridge and Coleridge athlete Kieran Wood, who clocked 3m44.19s. For the second year in succession Morpeth Harrier Jane Hodgson won the Women’s title at the annual Newburn River Run on Wednesday 13th June 2018, which was run on a slightly modified course, due to a recent flooding problem, in and around the traditional course route. As in 2017, Hodgson, who on the previous Saturday finished third in the annual Blaydon Race, set not exactly a million miles away from the Newburn route, once again finished in thirteenth place overall, posting a time of 35m37s, which was around a minute faster than twelve months previous, although on this occasion, the course may well have been slightly shorter due to the modifications. Hodgson was actually fourth overall home from Morpeth, only being headed by Ian Harding (2nd) 31m29s, Jordan Scott (3rd) 31m45s, and Matthew Boyle (11th) 35m26s, all excellent performances indeed. The event had 294 finishers, that also included another nine athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers. Other Morpeth Harrier results as follows Mike Winter (49th) (8th O/45 Man) 39m40s, Paul Banks (51st) (9th O/45 Man) 39m47s, James Johnson (54th) (10th O/40 Man) 40m08s, Richard Kirby (85th) (16th O/45 Man) 41m59s, Lindsay Turnbull (104th) (11th Woman) (3rd O/45 Woman) 43m22s, Helen King (105th) (12th Woman) (1st O/40 Woman) 43m22s, Jane Kirby (202nd) (35th Woman) (5th O/40 Woman) 51m43s, Clare Walker (203rd) (36th Woman) (6th O/40 Woman) 51m43s, and Carol Parry (204th) (6th O/45 Woman) 51m43s. North of England Senior Men’s 800m Champion James Young of Morpeth Harriers proved beyond all doubt that he is in a rich vein of form, as he produced a brand new personal best performance in the 1500m C Race at the BMC Gold Standard Meeting, held at Stretford, Manchester, on the evening of Tuesday 12th June 2018, only mere 48 hours following his Gold Medal achievement. He posted a superb time of 3m50.92s, to win by four seconds from Liverpool Harrier Daniel Preston. Young had travelled from his Lancaster base, in the hope of running in the A race, where on time alone, he would have finished in eighth place, but may have further improved his personal best, in what was a much faster race. He also improved on his previous figures by nearly eight seconds. Also competing in Young’s race, was fellow Morpeth Harrier Phillip Winkler, who finished seventh, posting a brand new personal best of 4m00.45s, taking nearly four seconds off his previous figures. |
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