Two Morpeth Harriers travelled to the North West at the weekend to take part
in the Wiggle Manchester half-marathon on Sunday 13th October 2019. A comparatively new event, but one growing in popularity largely due to the flat course and surroundings, the race starts and finishes by Old Trafford and attracts an entry of over 13,000. In a men’s race won by Ben Connor in 1 hour 3 minutes 12 seconds, Karl Taylor – who had taken in the chance to watch the Super League Grand Final on the Saturday – finished in 65th place in a time of 1:16:04. Michelle Thompson, meanwhile, set a new personal best for the distance by running 1:26:48, finishing in an overall 366th but 6th Over 35 female. Lily Partridge was 1st female finisher in 1:13:44. aturday 12th October 2019, saw the 153rd Alwinton Show take place, the last show of the year in Northumberland, and the junior and senior fell races were, as ever, keenly contested.
There was a Morpeth one, two, three in the 16 and under boys’ race, with Ryan Davies taking a lead on the early climb only to be pegged back by Joe Dixon on the descent, with Dixon winning by only a few metres at the finish. Bertie Marr came in second with James Tilley also in the top ten. Abi Leiper was second in the girls’ race. Kielder Marathon Weekend Saturday & Sunday 12th & 13th October 2019 Around 7,000 athletes took part in the tenth anniversary edition of the Kielder Marathon series
with Morpeth Harriers represented across all of the weekend’s events. A decade since Steve Cram’s Events of the North company organised the first race along the gruelling 26.2-mile off-road course, the weekend has blossomed into a popular series of running and cycling races. Sunday’s marathon is now accompanied by a half marathon which takes in part of the same course around Kielder Water. And Saturday sees the popular Run-Bike-Run individual and team races, plus a 10k and junior events. Athletes faced variable conditions across the weekend with blue skies and sunshine on Saturday but mist and rain on the Sunday. By the time the marathon was coming to its conclusion on Sunday afternoon, the downpours were occasionally torrential and conditions were getting challenging under foot. Morpeth’s sole medal success came in the 10k where Mark Snowball ran a time of 35mins 25secs on the undulating course, which saw him claim second place. Mark finished 20secs behind winner Liam Taylor, of Sunderland Harriers. In the marathon, Morpeth’s highest finisher was Andrew Hebden, who was on the starting line for the inaugural race in 2010 and has only missed it once since. His time of 2hrs 58mins 42secs was just 20secs shy of his course PB and secured him seventh place overall in the fastest field in the event’s history. The gold medal went to North East veteran Iain Tweddle in a time of 2hrs 45mins 56 secs. He saw off a determined challenge from Keswick AC’s Russell Maddams (2hrs 47mins 6secs), who had been looking to secure a third successive Kielder title. Second home for Morpeth was Gary Mason, who finished 176th 3hrs 58mins 48secs, while Jane Briggs and Mike Steven crossed the line together in 4hrs 37mins 23secs, in 394th and 395th place respectively. Morpeth’s sole representative in the half marathon was Jill Sandeman who finished 653rd in a time of 2hrs 18mins 14secs. The club’s other finishers in the 10k were Clare Walker and Carol Parry who crossed the line together in 1hr 1min 26secs, in 466th and 467th place respectively. Brothers George and Hamish Tweedie, meanwhile, flew the flag for Morpeth in the junior run, finishing in 10th and 12th place respectively. Led by Morpeth Harrier Ryan Davies, who won the Intermediate Boys overall event by a margin of four seconds from club colleague Joe Dixon, King Edward School advanced to the next round of the English Schools Cross Country Cup, following an emphatic first round victory over second placed Newcastle Royal Grammar School, at Gateshead’s International Bowl, on the afternoon of Tuesday 8th October 2019.
In third place was another Morpeth Harrier Sam Tate, who was a further seventeen seconds adrift, and the King Edward team success was completed by fifth placed athlete Bertie Marr, also a Morpeth Harrier. Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the Intermediate Boys event, and representing King Edward, were Matthew Walton (13th), and Liam Roche (15th). The Intermediate Girls event also saw victory for a Morpeth Harrier, in the form of Abi Leiper, representing Ponteland High School, who won by one second from event favourite Millie Breeze of Alnwick, representing Duchess High School, who won the team event. Leiper led her school to fifth team place, with fellow Morpeth Harrier Mia Belton, also figuring in their team count, as third scorer in 27th place. King Edward School could only finish in eighth team place; however, they were led home by Sophia Cunningham, who had an excellent run, finishing in eleventh place. Another prominent Morpeth Harrier finisher in this event was Olivia Carruthers, who finished in seventeenth place, and was fourth counter for a third finishing Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle. Also running for Dame Allan’s was fellow Morpeth Harrier Laura Melling, who was outside the scoring four in 26th place. Other King Edward School and Morpeth Harriers finishers were Alice Hudson (29th), Ellie Wickens (51st), and sprinter Olivia Gent (54th). On Sunday October 6th 2019 the British Modern Triathlon Championships took place at Solihull.
The event is a part of the Modern Pentathlon series and comprises a 200m pool swim, followed by the Combined LaserRun which involves 4x800m runs interspersed with 4xpistol shooting. Ross Charlton posted a personal best in the swim with 2mins 16 seconds which put him in 6th place. The athletes swim time is then converted to a handicap for the LaserRun. Although the specialist swimmers had a significant head start on Ross, he soon made up the handicap in the LaserRun and came home a comfortable winner in 11.17, about thirty seconds ahead of Yeovil's George Case and London's George Simpson. Report by John Charlton |
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