At Saturday's Park Run at Druridge Bay,
Morpeth Harrier Robert Balmbra had to settle for second place in a time of 16mins 3secs, only a second behind Kurt Heron of Ashington. Mark Snowball finished 3rd (17:49), Colin Archer 4th (17:59), Connor Marshall 5th (18:06) and Phil Walker 7th (18:53). Marshall was the leading Under 17 athlete and Walker the first Over 50. At the Newcastle Run, Alistair Douglass finished 8th in 17mins 33secs behind Adrian Bailes of Birtley who clocked 16mins 14secs. Lorna Macdonald was the second lady to finish clocking 19min 10secs behind Chloe Price of Birtley, who recorded 18mins 33secs. Report by Les Venmore Morpeth were represented by two competitors at the British
Masters 10,000mts Championships at Monkton Stadium, on Saturday 16th September 2017. David Nicholson finished third in the Over 60 category and also in the incorporated North Eastern Masters Championship. David clocked 39mins 42.30secs behind Brian Martin of Quakers who recorded 38mins 59.96secs, and Laurence Taylor of North York Moors whose time was 39mins 19.48secs. Paul Bentley finished 2nd in the Over 70 age-group in a time of 50mins 54.3secs behind Mick Casey of the World Veterans who clocked 42mins48.5secs. Paul did have the consolation of winning the North East Masters title. Report by Les Venmore The gold medal won by Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men was the highlight of the Northern Athletics Young Athlete and Senior Road Relays held in Manchester on Saturday 16th September 2017,
although the club’s senior men – after finishing in a commendable fourth place - were later upgraded to a bronze medal on Sunday following analysis of the results. The afternoon had got under way with initial difficulties when Morpeth’s Under 13 Boys suffered the enforced drop out of first leg runner, Joe Hudspith with a severe asthma attack. Fortunately, he later recovered and team mates Dylan Davies and James Tilley were allowed to run their later legs, but had to contend with the difficult situation of running with few other runners around them. Hopefully, all three will be able to move on from the disappointment in their next race. In the Under 15 boys event, Morpeth finished in a respectable 20th place with first leg runner Tom Cunningham coming in 12th and clocking 11 minutes 26 seconds; Andrew Hudspith running 12:10 in 20th; and Jonny Kidd 12:19 for an overall time of 35 : 55. An incomplete ‘B’ team also saw strong runs from Dylan Davies (11:53) and Ben Walker (12:03). The event was won by Blackburn Harriers in an overall time of 33:21. Highlight of the afternoon, however, was undoubtedly the performance of the U17 Mens team of Dan Melling, Taylor Glover and Rory Leonard. Melling ran 11:39 on leg 1 to come home in 10th position, and he was followed by Glover who was now able to work off the athletes ahead of him. By the end of his leg (11:23, the 9th fastest time of the day) Morpeth had moved up to 2nd place and it was down to last man Rory Leonard to battle it out with his nearest contenders from Vale Royal and Preston Harriers. This he did with aplomb, his clocking of 11:07 the second fastest of the day and the team finishing with a lead of some 12 seconds in 34:09 overall. All three can be justifiably proud of their achievements against the best of the rest of the North of England. In the Senior Men’s 6 stage relay, Morpeth coped more than adequately with the absence of a number of their leading runners to post a very solid performance when finishing in an initial 4th place. Tom Straughan got the club off to a respectable 14th place on a hotly contended leg 1 (20:03) with Carl Avery moving the club up to 4th on the 2nd (19:46 ). Ian Hudspith’s clocking of 19:43, Morpeth’s fastest of the day, got Morpeth back up to 6th on leg 4 after Andy Lawrence’s 3rd leg of 21:36 had seen the club drop back to 16th. Jordan Scott moved up one more place on leg 5 (20:46) and it was then left to his Amble-based colleague Ian Harding to anchor the team home in a time of 20:21, moving the club up to 4th place with an overall time of 2 hours 2 minutes 55 seconds. Using the event to gain experience, Under 20 athlete Jake Masterman also ran leg 1 in a time of 22:09 as a sole ‘B’ team representative. The event was won by Lincoln Wellington in a time of 1:58:32 with Salford Harriers placed 2nd and Liverpool Harriers 3rd. Events took an unexpected turn on Sunday morning, however, when a number of teams were later disqualified for irregularities in registration of athletes. As these teams included Salford Harriers, Morpeth were upgraded to an unexpected bronze medal, though as Straughan later commented, it was not perhaps the way they would like to have won it. Nevertheless, Morpeth can take pride in their team performance which placed them not only 3rd – or 4th, as the disqualifications are likely to be appealed but also meant that they were once again first club home from the North East, ahead of Tyne Bridge Harriers (8th, later upgraded to 5th) and Gateshead (21st). Report by Peter Scaife At the English Schools Combined Events Championships
at Boston on Saturday 16th September 2017. Morpeth Harriers Ethan Stephenson and Alfie Ward represented the Northumberland team that finished 8th behind Suffolk, in the Junior Boys (Under 15) Pentathlon. Stephenson finished in 20th place overall (and first North Eastern competitor) with performances of 14.54secs (+2.00mps wind reading) in the 80m Hurdles, 7.58m in the Shot, 4.54m (w/r 2.9) in the Long Jump, 1.68m in the High Jump and 2mins 21.71secs in the 800m. His efforts totalled 2468pts. Alfie finished 41st with 1568 pts. His performances were 14.54secs (w/r 2.0) in Hurdles, 7.58m in Shot, 4.54m (w/r 2.9) in Long Jump, 1.38m in High Jump and 2mins 44.58secs in 800m. The winner of the event was Joseph Harding of Essex, who amassed 3258pts. Report by Peter Scaife Morpeths Laura Weightman finished in an excellent second place in the prestigous
Fifth Avenue Mile in New York on Sunday 10th September 2017. Laura clocked a time of 4mins 17.01secs, which betters her previous figures on the Track by 3.8secs. The time also equates to a slight improvement on her best 1500m time of 4mins 00.17secs. The winner of the race was World 1500m silver medallist Jenny Simpson from the USA in a time of 4mins 15.58secs. Jessica Judd ran well to finish third in 4mins 17.86secs. Report by Les Venmore |
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