Twenty one Junior athletes from Morpeth Harriers were chosen to represent the
North East Youth Development League in an inter-area match against their Yorkshire counterparts at Middlesbrough, and their combined contributions were instrumental in helping the North East win a resounding victory on Sunday 3rd September 2017. Among many stand-out performances was that of Morpeth’s throws specialist Bobbie Griffiths, who capped another fine Summer by placing first in three separate disciplines, with 27.42 metres in the Under 17 discus, 38.50m in the hammer and 40.82m in the javelin. Jess Gardiner threw 22.36m to finish 2nd in the U15 girls discus. Bobbie’s efforts in the throws were matched by her male counterparts Andrew Knight and Ruaridh Lang. Lang won the U17 discus with a best of 48.25m and placed third in the shot putt with 11.40m. His colleague Andrew Knight won both this event, with a distance of 15.71m, and also the hammer with a best of 35.16m. He then contributed to the discus, finishing 5th with 30.83m. Morpeth’s Koffi Avornyo cleared 1 metre 48 to win the U13 High Jump, while in the U15 boys Ethan Stephenson jumped 1 m 70 but also recorded 5m 82 in the Long Jump when finishing 2nd. Grifiths’ success in three field events was matched on the track by that of Under 17 sprinter, hurdler and long jumper Jessica Young-Rogers. Jess comfortably won both the 80metre hurdles in 13 minutes 73 seconds and the 100m in 12m 74s, and managed to find time also to record a long jump of 4m 71cms for a 2nd place finish. Other stand-out performances in the hurdles and sprints came from Josh Hickson, 1st in the U13 race in 13m 73s and Amy Lott, 2nd in the U15 girls in 11m 88s. Alice Geoghegan was 5th in the U13 in 12m 80s. Ellie Longstaff was 2nd in the U13 girls 150 metres in 19m 70s but won the 75 metres in 9m 99s. Matthew Heslop was 6th in the U15 300m in 41m 81s. Finally, there were of course some super performances over longer distances on the track from Morpeth athletes. Rory Leonard and Taylor Glover went head to head in the U17 1500m, finishing in 1st and 2nd place respectively, with times of 4m 6.61s and 4m 7.54s. Holly Peck was 3rd in the corresponding U15 event with a time of 4m 58.55s. A busy Joe Ramshaw was 2nd in both the U17 400m (54m 21s) and the 800m (2m 10.65s), despite only having twenty minutes to recover between the two events. Ella Duffield came home 3rd in the U17 in 2m 30.17s. Lily Heaton was 5th in the U15 (2m 41.89s) and Mia Belton 6th in the U13 (2m 42.40s). Report by Peter Scaife Richard Sill was Morpeth's sole competitor at the Matfen 10km on Sunday 3rd September 2017.
He finished in 22nd place with a time of 44mins 59secs and was second in the Over 60 category behind Hugh Welch of Tynedale (43:47). The winner of the race was former Tyne Bridge Harrier, Jack Neeson (37:31). Report by Les Venmore Long and ultra distance enthusiast Lorna MacDonald of Morpeth Harriers
won the North East Marathon club half marathon event at the Wentworth Leisure Centre, Hexham, on September 3rd 2017. Lorna completed the gruelling 52 laps of the track in a time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, well ahead of her nearest rivals. Report by Peter Scaife The annual Sunderland cross-country relays took place at Farringdon on Saturday 2nd September,
Morpeth Harriers men claiming first and fifth places. The event, a traditional low-key curtain raiser to the cross-country season, takes place over a 1.8 mile circuit - including a testing hurdle over a deep stream - with teams of four contesting the annual trophy. Rob Balmbra got Morpeth off to a tremendous start, his 8 minutes 49 seconds the fastest time of the day, and though the club dropped to second on Ali Douglas’ leg (9m 24s) as Houghton Harriers moved into first place with a strong leg by their second place runner, James Young quickly regained first slot on leg three (also 9m 24s). It was left to Chris Smith to bring the baton home, and this he did comfortably, his clocking of 8m 56s making him one of only four runners on the day to run below 9 minutes. Behind him, Tyne Bridge moved into second overall, with Houghton Harriers third. There was also a very promising team performance from a young Morpeth B team, who finished in a commendable 5th place, ahead of the A string of many other clubs. Mark Snowball got the race underway, clocking 9m 50s to finish in 8th position. He was followed by Tom Innes, whose 9m 52s moved the team up to 6th, and Dean Lonsdale, whose 10m 10s gained a further place. Richard Castledine anchored the team with 9m 54s. In the Junior races, held over the same venue but run as individual events, there were a handful of Morpeth’s younger athletes competing. Best performance of the day was that of Daniel Melling, 2nd in the Under 17s in a time of 9m 31s, while Daniel’s sister Laura was 20th in the U13 girls (14m 4s). Kiera Peck was 9th (4m 35s) in the short course U11 girls. In the U15 boys, Andrew Hudspith was 15th in 10m 52s and Jonny Kdd 18th in 10m 57s. Joe Hudspith was 6th (11m 27s) in the U13 boys and James Tilley 13th in 12m 4s. Report by Peter Scaife Morpeth provided two overall winners at Saturday's Park Runs.
Ian Hudspith won at Newcastle in a fast time of 15mins 22secs. Ian Harding was successful at Druridge Bay clocking 15mins 39secs defeating Kurt Heron of Ashington (15:54). Helen King was the first lady here with a time of 20mins 16secs, finishing in 13th place overall. Report by Les Venmore |
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