North East official, Margaret Watson, has passed away after a short illness on Wednesday 18th October 2017. Many people will remember Margaret with fondness. Many, many years of service both on the road, country and track as a track judge. It was only a few days ago that we heard she had been taken ill, she will be greatly missed. Margaret has been involved in athletics since the 1950s when she was a young member of Heaton Harriers. She helped develop Wallsend Harriers when it reformed in the late 70s and coached male and female sprinters. Margaret was a member of the club's management committee for many years. In the 90s she became a UK: Athletics qualified technical official and was a Track & Field judge, as well as a Road and Cross Country official. Margarets funeral will take place at 3pm on Thursday 2nd November at Preston Crematorium, Tynemouth, NE29 9NJ. It will be a humanist ceremony. Despite the increasing threat of extremely strong winds,
Morpeth Harriers still managed to complete the second event in their 2017 Young Athletes Road Championship Series at Lancaster Park on the evening of Monday 15th October 2017. On this occasion it was their Under 11’s who faced the starter, with four contesting the Boys event and three taking part in the Girls event. First Boy home, and posting a finishing time of 9m23s over the 1.3mile circuit was Sam Dent, and only four seconds behind him was Under 11 Girl Winner Keira Peck, and both athletes will be receiving respective Gold Medals and Trophies at the forthcoming Presentation Night being held at Bar Luga in Morpeth on Sunday November 26th. Runners up and respective Silver Medals went to Charlie Lowes (10m09s), and Freya Caygill (10m17s), and third places and respective Bronze Medals will go to Theo Bird (10m33s), and Olivia Tweddle (11m36s). Fourth finisher in the Boys event was Ashton Glover (10m47s). The next events in the series will be for Under 15 Boys and Girls, and Under 17 Men and Women, and they will take place on Monday 30th October. Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers competed in the
Jarrow & Hebburn AC Minors Cross Country events, held at Bede well Park in Hebburn on Saturday 14th October 2017. Keira Peck finished an excellent third in the Year 5 Girls 1mile event, only losing out for victory to Birtley AC’s Maggie Graham, posting a finishing time of 5m20s, in what were relatively ideal conditions. In the Year 5 Boys 1.25mile event, her Morpeth club colleague Ashton Glover finished 24th, posting a finishing time of 6m12s. 203 finishers took part in the very first Park Run held at Newbiggin on Saturday morning (14th October 2017).
Several Morpeth Harriers took part in the event, which was led home by Ashington Hirst’s Kurt Heron, who crossed the finish line in 16m29s. Nearly a minute adrift of him in second place was Karl Taylor of Morpeth. Third runner across the finish line was Mark Snowball, who clocked 18m21s. Other Morpeth Harriers who were prominent finishers in the inaugural event were young Under 15 athlete Dylan Davies, who finished fifth in 19m10s, Over 50 Veteran Phil Walker, who finished seventh in 19m25s, Andrew Richardson (17th) 20m41s, Dylan Walker, young son of Phil (24th) 21m39s, and Over 50 Veteran Man Jim Alder (28th) 21m51s. Druridge Bay Park Run A few miles further up the coast at Druridge Bay, Morpeth Harrier Ian Harding was first across the finish line in 16m27s. Thomas Coulson of Morpeth Harriers set new figures of 19m18s when finishing fifth, as did club colleague Oliver Bruce, when finishing twelfth in 20m42s. Morpeth’s Ella Duffield was also a prominent finisher, and was second Female in 23rd place, posting a time of 22m47s. Whitley Bay Park Run Taylor Glover continued his excellent form when taking first place at Whitley Bay in 16m57s, only a few seconds adrift of his best on the course. Nearly 3,000 finishing competitors took part in the annual Kielder Running and Cycling events, held in deepest Northumberland over last Saturday and Sunday, 7th & 8th October 2017, including several athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers. Most notable performers from the club were Gemma Floyd, Lorna MacDonald, and Chris Smith, who were all event winners. On Saturday, five from the club took part in the 10k event, and Gemma Floyd was first Woman home, finishing 9th overall, posting a time of 39m47s. Other Morpeth Harriers in this event were John Butters, Jake Masterman, Liam Marsh, and Claire Hiscock. Butters produced an excellent run to finish second, as first Over 40 Man in 34m30s. Also, prominently placed were Masterman and Marsh, who finished third and fifth respectively, posting times of 35m05s, and 37m26s. Claire finished 355th in 59m02s, and was 30th Over 40 Woman. Morpeth had another Woman winner on the Sunday, when Lorna MacDonald was first home in the Marathon, finishing an excellent 24th overall in 3hrs15m20s.
Other prominent Morpeth finishers in the Marathon were Andrew Hebden (7th) 2hrs58m38s, and Matthew Briggs (11th) 3hrs02m15s. Finishing further down the field from Morpeth in the Marathon were, Alex Zeller (192nd) 4hrs07m38s, Jane Briggs (246th) (10th O/40 Woman) 4hrs17m02s, Mike Steven (247th) (7th O/60 Man) 4hrs17m03s, Jane Kirby (340th) (20th O/40 Woman) 4hrs34m20s, and Carol Parry (431st) (33rd O/40 Woman) 4hrs48m49s. In addition, three members from Morpeth Harriers competed in the Half Marathon, also held on Sunday. First of these to finish was Over 40 Veteran Man Andrew Leason, who was 66th overall in 99m29s, and was 19th in his category. Other Morpeth finishers were James McFetrich (164th) (44th Over 40 Man) 109m03s, and Helen Bruce (203rd) (12th O/40Woman) 112m08s. Finally, in the Run, Bike, Run competition, a form of Duathlon, Morpeth Harrier Chris Smith repeated his 2016 victory, posting a total time of 1hr58m05s. |
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