For the third consecutive year, the North East Youth Development League
Select Squad triumphed over West Yorkshire in their annual Track and Field Challenge Match, held at Middlesbrough Sports Village on Sunday 2nd September 2018. With a total of 76 events being competed in, the region won by a total of 837 points, to their rivals 518, which marked a significant improvement on previous for West Yorkshire, and the tough competition was much appreciated by athletes, and the contingent of supporters on what was again a sunny day, however sprints, and Long and Triple Jumps were marred by an untimely tail wind, which rendered some excellent performances illegal for upgrading, with speeds averaging between plus 2.5 and plus 4.3. The North East squad included no fewer than seventeen athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers, and the team were once again excellently Managed by Harriers Coach Dave Thomas, who was assisted by an excellent team of co organisers. One of the Morpeth Harriers who fell victim to the plus wind problem was Under 15 Girl Amy Lott, who won the 75m Hurdles in a new personal best time of 11.21s, which unfortunately will not improve her ranking due to the illegality. Normally the time would have seen her ranked as No 4 in the country. Lott was also one of five Morpeth winners on the day, the others being fellow Under 15 Girl Jessica Gardiner, who achieved two victories, and very nearly two personal bests, Under 17 Man Ethan Stephenson, Under 15 Boy Euan Duffin, and Under 13 Boy Bertie Marr. Gardiner won the Hammer by just over three metres from fellow North East thrower Lucy Nicklin of New Marske, throwing a new personal best of 38.28m, eclipsing her previous figures by just over two metres. She also won the Discus by just over five metres from Longwood’s Niamh Woodhouse, representing West Yorkshire, with her best throw of 29.55m, fractionally adrift of her lifetime best. Staying with Field Events, Ethan Stephenson won the Under 17 Men’s Triple Jump, by producing an on the day best of 12.38m, winning by 40cm from Cleethorpes athlete Keiran Vines. The Under 15 Boys 1500m proved to be one of the most interesting contests of the day, when Morpeth’s Euan Duffin beat Birtley and North East representative Chris Perkins for the second time within twenty-four hours. Duffin had beaten Perkins in the previous days cross country meeting at Sunderland and managed to achieve his second victory by kicking away from him with 250 metres remaining, to win by a margin of just over a second in 4m22.20s, knocking a whole five seconds off his previous figures. There was another 1500m victory for a Morpeth athlete, courtesy of Bertie Marr, who managed to draw clear from club colleague Ryan Davies, to win by just under a second in 4m57.72s. Another good 1500m performer was Tom Balsdon, who finished second in the Under 17 Men’s event in 4m27.45s. Morpeth athletes also accounted for no less than another five second places. Two of those were achieved by Nat Arkle, who threw 22.67m in the Under 15 Boys Hammer and achieved a new personal best of 24.17m in the Discus. In the Under 17 Men’s Discus, David Sanderson threw a new personal best of 34.03m, to finish second behind North Shields Poly’s James Wordsworth, making it a North East one-two. Sanderson bettered his previous figures by just over three metres. Another Morpeth Harrier competing in the Discus was Luke Haxell, who finished fourth with an on the day best of 29.14m. Matthew Heslop produced a new personal best performance of 5.68m, when finishing second in the Under 17 Men’s Long Jump. Back with the track, and in the Under 15 Girls 100m, with a wind speed of plus 2.2, Amber Witt of Morpeth produced a new personal best of 12.93s, when finishing second. Morpeth Harriers accounted for no less than six third placed performers. In the Under 17 Men’s Hammer, Luke Haxell produced a new personal best of 24.54m. Club colleague David Sanderson threw the Hammer for the first time and achieved 23.73m for fourth place. In the Under 15 Boys Javelin, Daniel Dowd threw 38.11m for third place, only a mere fourteen centimetres adrift of second, and just over two metres adrift of the winner Fred Yates of the North East. Morpeth’s Ben Waterfield had two third places in the Under 15 Boys events. He was third in the 800m in 2m10.59s, also in the 300m in 44.48s. In the Under 15 Girls Javelin, Rosie Winter threw 22.14m for third spot. Koffi Avornyo of Morpeth equalled his personal best clearance of 1.55m in the Under 15 Boys High Jump for third place. Under 15 Girl Mia Belton of Morpeth was just run out of a top three place in the 300m, where she posted a time of 44.27s. The North East won three of the 4 x 100m Relay events. The 2018-19 Cross Country season opened on Saturday 1st September 2018, with Sunderland Harriers hosting their annual event at Farringdon School, and for the first time they were held in honour of their former coach Ken Jefferson, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Morpeth’s Sam Hancox clocked the fastest time of the day over the 1.8mile course of 8m44s, to help his club to the retention of the Senior Men’s Team title. They were in second place, courtesy of Thomas Straughan’s first leg clocking of 9m05s. But after an excellent second leg of 8m55s by Jordan Scott, they never looked back after grabbing the lead from the Morpeth B team, who were incomplete after Taylor Glover’s excellent opening leg of 8m53s, which eventually emerged as the second fastest time of the day behind Hancox. The squad went from strength to strength as they increased their lead over second placed hosts Sunderland Harriers to 106 seconds, courtesy of Hancox, and final leg runner James Young (9m27s). In the Veteran Men’s Relay, also run over four legs of 1.8mile, Morpeth finished in second place to Sunderland Harriers by a margin of 2m50s, after finishing third on the opening leg. They were represented by Lee Bennett (10m00s), Fergus Bates (10m08s), Rob Hancox (10m29s), and Phil Walker (10m31s). The clubs Veteran Men’s B team finished in an excellent fourth team place, with performances coming from Paul Waterston (10m40s), Graeme Thorpe (10m18s), Paul Bellingham (11m38s), and David Swinburne (10m21s). They had progressed from eighth on the first leg. Morpeth Harriers Senior Women performed superbly in their 3 x 1.8mile Relay, finishing second to Sunderland Harriers, only losing out by a mere nine seconds. They held second place all throughout, courtesy of Robyn Bennett (10m52s), Alison Brown (12m10s), and Gracie Hufton (11m32s). Bennett and Hufton were the second and fifth fastest overall in the event, and both are still competing in the Under 20 age group. Euan Duffin of Morpeth had an excellent win in the Under 15 Boys event, posting a time of 9m16s over the 1.8mile circuit. He won with ten seconds to spare over Birtley’s Chris Perkins, with Morpeth’s Dylan Davies finishing an excellent third in 9m59s. Another Morpeth performer in the Under 15 Boys event was Ben Walker, who finished ninth in 11m01s. The Under 17 Men’s event run over the same distance, saw Morpeth’s Ross Charlton produce one of the clubs runs of the day, as he finished a very close second to Blyth’s Josh Fiddaman, only losing out for victory by a mere five seconds with his excellent 8m59s, and beating North East representative Will Bellamy of Houghton Harriers, who finished third in 9m02s. In the Under 13 Boys 1.8mile event, Morpeth’s Ryan Davies, younger brother of Dylan,
finished second in 10m47s, with his Morpeth club colleague Joseph Hudspith finishing third in 10m59s. In her first cross country outing in a Morpeth vest following her summer transfer from Elswick Harriers, Abby Leiper certainly looked the part, as she finished fifth in the Under 15 Girls event in 11m24s. Another on the day debutant for Morpeth, was Molly Baker, who finished 13th in the Under 13 Girls event, posting a finishing time of 13m42s. In what was officially his final appearance as a Morpeth Harrier,
Under 17 Shot Putter Andrew Knight once again finished second to a dominant English Champion Lewis Byng of the Midlands, at the annual UK Schools Games, which were held in Loughborough over two days of intense competition on Friday and Saturday 31st August & 1st September 2018. On Saturday, and representing the North of England, Knight’s series of six throws produced a best effort of 16.54m, which firmly placed him second, just ahead of the South’s Josh Wise, who had a best of 16.35m. Knight will very soon link up with Wise, as he moves to Southampton. No one however was going to match Byng however, who on the day putted a best of 19.05m, which also in his series included him breaking the ten-year-old games record of 18.86m on two occasions. The club wish Knight all the best to him for the future and thank him for his dedicated service during his period with them. The Van Damme Stadium in Brussels, Belgium played host to the fourteenth and final meeting of the 2018 IAAF Diamond League series on Friday evening (31st August 2018).
Morpeth’s Laura Weightman was once again in competitive action at the event, finishing ninth in the Women’s 1500m, won by fellow Brit Laura Muir, who posted a finishing time of 3m58.49s. Weightman posted a finishing time of 4m04.36s. She hopes to compete in next weekends prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, when she will line up alongside fellow Brits, Sarah MacDonald, Steph Twell, and Adelle Tracey. 201 finishers took part in the annual Watergate 5k Multi Terrain event, held at Lobley Hill,
and organised by Low Fell Running Club, on the evening of Thursday 30th August 2018. They were led home by new Morpeth Harriers recruit Alex Brown, who was taking part in his first event, since transferring from fellow North East rivals Houghton Harriers during July. Still competing in the Under 20 Men’s age group, Brown led from gun to tape, and posted a winning time of 15m30s, which although was well adrift of his personal best for the distance, which was the 14m49s, that he clocked in the Sunderland 5k in July, where he had finished third in the Northern Championships behind New Marske’s Dominic Shaw, and his second placed Morpeth colleague Sam Hancox. It did however on this occasion, give him a forty-two second cushion over Gateshead Harrier Steven Asquith, with his former Houghton Harriers colleague Lee Dover finishing third in an identical time to Asquith. Another Morpeth Harrier producing a fine performance on the night was Marathon Man Andrew Lawrence, who finished sixth in 16m34s. The next Morpeth Harriers finisher was Over 60 Veteran Man Dave Nicholson, who finished in 45th place in a seasons best time of 18m55s, and twelve places and thirty seconds ahead of club colleague Gavin Bayne. Nicholson and Bayne were first and second in the Over 60 Men’s category. Susan Smith was next home from the club, finishing 168th in 24m30s, and was fifth in the Over 50 Veteran Women’s category. Three places behind Susan was club colleague Paul Bentley, who posted a finishing time of 24m56s, and was third Over 65 Man. Completing the Morpeth Harriers finishers was Pam Woodcock, who finished 175th in 25m30s, and was second Over 65 Veteran Woman. |
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