Since joining the club, I have spent 45 summers managing either our men's or women's track & field teams.
This will be the last time. With some notable exceptions, the level of commitment of our women's squad this time has been the worst that I have experienced. The dates of our four fixtures have been available on the club website, noticeboards and elsewhere since well before the start of the season. How is it that so many of our athletes seem unable to plan to make themselves available for our league dates? That's apart from those who don't have the courtesy to reply to phone calls or texts. There were also those who were revising for exams several weeks beforehand and, in some cases, seem to be still revising. I went through the exam system to degree level and still managed to fit in plenty of competition – I found it a great break from the boredom. I suspect that many spent that revision time staring at the wall or playing with their phones, or maybe socialising was higher up their priority list ! I hope that attitudes will change amongst our athletes next summer, otherwise my successor will have an uphill task. For me it will be great to plan holidays without having to keep clear of our league dates and also not having to listen to excuses that defy belief. Mike Bateman Morpeth Harrier Ruaridh Lang, who was one of Northumberland’s two medallists at the
English Schools Track and Field Championships, and currently ranked No 7 in the UK for Under 17 Men’s Discus, has been chosen to represent the North at the annual School Games in Loughborough from 31st August till 3rd September 2017. This competition is very high profile, featuring athletes from the South, Midlands, and North of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, all competing against each other in their specialist events, and Ruaridh, a KEVI pupil in Morpeth is honoured to be included, and we wish him the best of luck during the competition. Whilst a torrential downpour seriously affected competing conditions at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in London, athletes taking part in the sixth and final Start Fitness North Eastern Grand Prix at Gateshead Stadium on the evening of Wednesday 9th August 2017, were blessed with sunny conditions, laced with a slight wind,
which made it relatively ideal for all, including 20 members from Morpeth Harriers, who were taking one of their last opportunities to compete in outdoor Track and Field for 2017. The only obstacle that athletes faced on the night however, was a slick of oil, from an unknown source, which had not been cleared up, and rendered at least three of the eight lanes inoperable for 200m and 400m, which ultimately forced officials into setting athletes into more heats than desired, and severely lengthened the already busy programme schedule into later in the night. On to the athletics itself however, and a total of ten new personal bests were achieved by athletes from the club, eight on the track, and two from the field by one athlete. In the final, and longest event of the night, the graded 3000m, all of the four club athletes in the line-up, achieved brand new figures. James Taylor, who finished fourth overall, set new figures of 8m54.77s, taking a massive eleven seconds off his previous figures. Next from the club to finish in the event was Mark Snowball, who was having his first outing over the seven and a half lap event, and he clocked 9m37.38s, when finishing twelfth. One place behind Mark, was his club colleague Mhairi MacLennan, who posted new figures of 9m42.51s, taking a whole ten seconds off her previous best. Completing the Morpeth quartet was Thomas Innes, who finished fifteenth in 10m00.51s, also a new personal best. Alistair Douglass proved to be fastest Senior Man in the Graded 800m, when he finished second in the A race, posting a fractional new personal best of 1m57.42s, one place ahead of club colleague Kieran Hedley, whose 1m58.14s, made him fastest Under 20 Man. Joe Armstrong finished seventh in the A race in 1m59.71s, one place ahead of his Morpeth club colleague Rory Leonard, who clocked 2m00.59s, shaving a fraction off his new personal best. Another Morpeth athlete in the A race was Joe Dowd, who finished tenth in 2m04.70s. In the B race, two athletes from the club were amongst those in action. Joe Ramshaw finished second in 2m02.11s, just one place ahead of Taylor Glover (2m02.47s). These postings made them fourth and fifth fastest in their Under 17 age group. Ramshaw also took on the one lap race over 400m, where he posted new figures of 54.4s, when taking the B race, and was the fastest Under 17 Man. Another new Morpeth personal best in the 400m, came from Under 20 athlete Dean Lonsdale, who was first home in the D race, clocking 56.36s, he was fourth fastest in his age group. Neil McAnany of Morpeth won the fifth 400m E race in 60.76m. Back with two lap 800m races, where two Morpeth Harriers were in action in the Under 15 Girls event. Holly Peck looked to be winning her race, until she was caught by North Shields Poly’s Rosie Hughes in the final 200m. Whilst Hughes ran home for an unexpected victory, Peck bravely rallied, and reached the finish line in 2m26.26s. It has been a very long and busy season for Peck, and will probably now take a competitive breather for a few days. Finishing one place and nine seconds adrift of Peck, was club colleague Lily Heaton. In the 200m Jacob Clayton finished fourth in the second heat for his Under 15 Boys age group, in 28.83s. Fellow Morpeth Under 15 Boy Alfie Ward was certainly in superb form in the Field Events. He produced a superb new personal best in the Pole Vault, with a clearance of 2.20m, and another fractional personal best in the Long Jump, with 4.79m. Morpeth Harriers also had Andrew Knight and Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot in action in the Shot Putt. Knight won the Under 17 Men’s competition, by Putting a best of 14.58m, and Pickering-Pruvot very easily took the Under 17 Women’s competition, with her best of her series of efforts reaching 12.83m. Final Grand Prix performances are still to be ratified, for the league presentation to be held at the end of September, these will be posted on the North-Eastern Counties Athletics Association website on www.necaa.weebly.com when known. With only just over four seconds dividing first and last,
Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman finished sixth out of twelve athletes, in the IAAF World Championships Women’s 1500 Final, at London’s Olympic Park on Monday evening.(7th August 2017) Weightman, who had run three good consistent races, including the final, was always in contention, running against some of the best in the world, and could feel well pleased with her efforts, despite just losing out on a medal with her clocking of 4m04.11s, which was just over a second adrift of the medals. The event was won by Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon (4m02.59s), with America’s Jenny Simpson getting the Silver in 4m02.76s, and in third place was South Africa’s Caster Semenya (4m02.90s), just outrunning Weightman’s Great Britain colleague Laura Muir (4m03.97s) for the Bronze medal. In the three races, Weightman’s consistency showed as she posted respective finishing times of 4m03.50s, 4m05.63s, and 4m04.11s. Twenty-five athletes, fourteen Men, and eleven Women, were in action for Morpeth Harriers in their fourth and final Northern Athletics League Division 2 fixture, held at Middlesbrough Athletics Village, on Saturday 5th August 2017. The club had four A String wins (2 Men & 2 Women) (2 Track & 2 Field), and two B String wins, (1 Track & 1 Field), both of them coming from the Women’s section, on a day which saw them finish third, albeit in a very tight match, with only a mere handful of points separating the top four clubs. Sean O’Hara won the Men’s 200m A race in 23.3s, getting the nod in a close photo finish with Leeds City’s Taf Nyaku. In the B race, Phil Pitt finished fourth in 24.0s, only a mere fraction adrift of winner Ahmed Al Kufaishi of the host club Middlesbrough AC. In the Men’s 800m A race, despite trailing Leeds City’s Jack Allison for 700m of the event, Alistair Douglass, found enough in himself for one final last challenge, to take the race in 1m58.9s, winning by just under one second. The B race saw Morpeth’s Joe Ramshaw finish third in 2m04.6s. In the Men’s 5000m, Chris Smith finished second in the A race in 15m29.8s, and Jordan Scott finished second in the B race in 17m01.2s. Scott had earlier finished second in the 1500m A race in 4m11.7s. In the Men’s 400m A race, James Young finished third in 51.9s, and in his first outing of the season, Adam Gibbs finished a good second in the B race, posting a time of 53.3s. Mark Snowball, who had only got back in the early hours from Cornwall, finished third in the 3000m Steeplechase in 10m50.8s. Courtesy of Kenny Harrison, Billy Handyside, Sean O’Hara, and Phil Pitt, Morpeth Men’s 4x 100m squad finished a close second to Middlesbrough, in a combined time of 46.2s. In the Men’s 4 x 400m Relay, Morpeth finished third in 3m41.9s, thanks to the efforts of Chris Smith, Joe Ramshaw, Adam Gibbs, and James Young. On to the Men’s Field events, where brothers Steven and Paul Appleby certainly did more than a lion’s share of throws duty. In the Hammer, Steven finished second in the A String (25.42m), and Paul backed him up well, by finishing third in the B String with a best of 20.06m. Paul took over A string duties in the Discus (30.29m), Javelin (25.91m), and Shot Putt (9.17m), finishing, third, fourth, and fourth again respectively. Meanwhile Steven supplied good B String support, by finishing second, third, and third respectively, throwing bests of 29.73m, 20.92m, and 8.96m. In the Jumps events, David Thomas provided Morpeth’s A String performances, finishing fifth in the Long Jump (5.28m), third in the Triple Jump (11.56m), and sixth in the High Jump (1.40m). Billy Handyside was Morpeth’s B String athlete in the Long Jump, finishing fourth with 5.23m, and he finished second in the Triple Jump with 10.62m, not far adrift of B String winner Adam Pratt of Tynedale. On to the Women’s events, where Morpeth had two A String winners in Under 17 athletes Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot, and Bobbie Griffiths. Charlotte threw a best of 36.92m, to win the Discus by a clear six metres plus margin, and was a brand new personal best for the talented Under 17 athlete. Fellow Under 17 athlete Griffiths, won her favoured event the Javelin, by over a seven-metre margin, with her best throw of 36.45m, which was a little below her personal best, because she is nursing her way back from a back injury. Nevertheless, it proved to be a winner. Backing up Pickering-Pruvot and Griffiths in the B String events of the Discus and Javelin was Claire Reid. Claire Reid had an excellent win in the Discus with 28.33m, and was third in the Javelin with 16.54m. Griffiths and Reid also linked up well in the Hammer and Shot Putt events. The former finished third in the A String Hammer with a best of 30.56m, and Reid threw 24.17m, to take second in the B String. Roles were reversed in the Shot, where Reid finished second in the A String, putting a best of 10.15m, and Griffiths was good for second in the B String with 9.89m. There were some excellent Women’s track performances for Morpeth, from Ella Duffield, Gemma Floyd, Lorna MacDonald, Helen King, Nadine Arkle, and Lynsey Cunningham. Talented Under 17 Middle Distance runner Ella Duffield, finished second in the A String 400m in 66.3s, and won the 800m B String in 2m35.0s, backing up Gemma Floyd’s second place in the A race in 2m25.5s. Floyd also finished second in the 1500m A race in 5m12.5s, being well backed up by Lorna MacDonald’s second place in the B String in 5m13.4s. MacDonald also finished second in the 3000m A race in 11m10.9s, being backed up by Northern League debutant Helen King, who finished second in the B race in 11m43.4s. King also finished third in the 400m B race in 73.1s. Nadine Arkle and Lynsey Cunningham performed Morpeth sprint duties
Arkle finished third and fourth respectively in the 100m and 200m, posting respective times of 13.5s and 27.9s. Cunningham meanwhile finished fourth in the B 100m in 14.7s, and third in the B 200m in 31.3s. Morpeth Women’s 4 x 100m squad, courtesy of Naomi Arkle, Nadine Arkle, Lynsey Cunningham, and Ella Duffield, finished third in 54.8s. Back with Women’s Field Events, and Naomi Arkle finished fourth and third respectively in the Long Jump and Triple Jump, with bests of 4.26m, and 8.83m. B String backing in these events came from Andrea Thomas, with respective efforts of 2.94m and 5.40m, getting her fifth and fourth places. FINAL MATCH RESULTS (Subject to further scrutiny) 1st Tynedale Harriers 374pts, 2nd Middlesbrough AC 369pts, 3rd Morpeth Harriers 339pts, 4th Leeds City 332pts, 5th Skyrac AC 263, 6th Gateshead Harriers 256pts. FINAL LEAGUE STANDINGS (Match points in brackets) 1st Middlesbrough AC 19pts (1391), 2nd Tynedale H 15.5pts (1265), 3rd Morpeth Harriers 14pts (1297), 4th Gateshead Harriers 13pts (1227) 5th Leeds City 12.5pts (1345) 6th Skyrac AC 10pts (1222). |
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