Pipping his rival by the narrowest of one second margins, Sam Hancox had his revenge over Bristol and West athlete Jarlath Mckenna – who had got the better of him in the previous week’s Bridges of the Tyne race – at the annual Sunderland 5k races last Thursday (11th July).
The fast two lap course round the fishing lakes at the Silksworth Sports Centre usually attracts a good quality field for men, women and veterans alike and this year was no exception, although the torrid early evening conditions clearly had an adverse effect on many competitors. In the first race, for women and male veterans Over 50, World Masters Over 55 multiple record holder Guy Bracken of North Shields Polytechnic Harriers had an expected victory with a time of 16 minutes and 18 seconds. Morpeth’s Lee Bennett, however, was less than a minute back in second place with a clocking of 17m 3s and picked up the 1st O/50 prize. An out of sorts Rob Hancox finished in 19m 22s and Alistair Macdonald returned to competitive action with 21m 2s. Paul Bentley was 4th O/70 with 26m 23s. In the women’s race, run at the same time, Robyn Bennett was 1st Morpeth home in 5th place overall in 18m 22s behind race winner Charlotte Penfold of NSP’s 17m 40s. Not far behind Robyn were Rachelle Falloon, 7th in 18m 54s and Helen King, 1st O/40 in 19m 4s in 8th place overall. It was a busy night for the clan Macdonald with all three sisters running. Lorna took the bragging rights this time, finishing in 10th place in 19m 6s ahead of Cat in 13th with 19m 27s. Continuing to make steady improvements meanwhile, Lindsey was 48th in 23m 6s. In the men’s race, Sam Hancox led from the off with the intention of making it hard for his rivals and for most of the first lap had Jordan Bell of Blackhill Bounders on his shoulder. With Bell fading after two kilometres, Mckenna and Kieran Walker of Middlesbrough Mandale took up the chase, and with one kilometre to go, Hancox and Mckenna were shoulder to shoulder. Unfortunately for the Bristol and West athlete, he had not run the race before and so misread the finish, and this gave Hancox just the opportunity needed to seal a fine victory in a race where he had finished second on two previous occasions. Tommy Straughan had a good run to finish 7th (15m 28s) and behind him, Karl Taylor was 9th (15m 40s), young Rowan Bennett 13th (15m 50s), Mark Snowball 26th (16m 19s), Richard Johnson 27th (16m 22s) and Tom Innes 38th (16m 38s). Start Fitness North Eastern Grand Prix (4) Eight athletes from Morpeth Harrier were in action at the fourth Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Grand Prix meeting, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium, on the evening of Wednesday 10th July 2019. Only two of those eight athletes produced personal best performances on the night, and they just happened to be sibling brothers Ryan and Dylan Davies, both of whom have been in fine form of late, and respectively progressing under the ever watchful eye of their coach Mike Bateman, and his team of assistants at the club, and being also respectively as competitive as each other, they are indeed not shy when it comes to toughing it out with the best. Ryan, for his part, made his mark in the Junior Graded 1500m, finishing as fourth fastest Under 15 Boy, posting a new personal best finishing time of 4m32.17s, taking a whole nine seconds off his previous figures. Four places behind Ryan, was his club colleague Bertie Marr, who by degree is not quite at his best, however he still managed to emerge as eighth fastest Under 15 Boy, posting a time of 4m46.17s. The older Davies, Dylan, finished an overall twelfth in a later run 20 strong Graded 3000m event, also producing personal best figures of 9m49.54s, taking fractionally over a second off his previous figures, which certainly delighted the Under 17 athlete. Another Morpeth Harrier in action in the 3000m was Under 20 Woman Gracie Hufton, who posted a finishing time of 11m45.64s. Morpeth had three athletes in action in the Senior Graded 800m event. Alistair Douglass was the fastest of these, finishing fifth in the fastest of four heats, posting a time of 1m56.09s. Five places behind him was club colleague Kieran Hedley, who posted a time of 2m02.44s. The third Morpeth Harrier in action here was Tayla Murdy, who posted a time of 2m42.49s in the slowest of the four races. Morpeth’s only Field eventer on the night was regular Under 15 Girl 800m runner Abi Leiper, who wax overall fifth in the Graded Under 13/Under 15 Long Jump, getting an on the night best out of herself of 4.33m, and led her particular age group in the competition. Trafford Open Grand Prix Meeting Morpeth Harrier George Lowry travelled across to Stretford in Manchester on the evening of Tuesday 9th July 2019 and was pleased to record a new personal best of 8m34.23s, when finishing second in a highly competitive 3000m A Race at the Trafford Open Grand Prix Meeting. He lost out on individual victory by around five seconds to Leigh’s William Rawson, who also produced new figures. Lowry took around two seconds off his previous figures, that he had achieved at the same venue in June. Great North 10k Matthew Boyle was Morpeth’s first finisher in the Great North 10k on Sunday 7th July 2019, with a time of 38m 1s and a 32nd placing. Kate Gaffing was 826th in 49m 32s. The race was won by James Mckenzie in 33m 11s with Ashley Gibson 1st woman home in 35m 40s. Chevy Chase Fell Race Emma Holt marked a return to competitive action after a number of difficult injury-filled months when finishing 17th overall and first woman home in the annual Chevy Chase fell run on Saturday 6th July 2019. In a race won Lee Roe of NFRA in just over 3 hours, she finished with a good time of 3 hours 31 minutes 43 seconds and was well up the field. Behind her, Steve Haswell had a good run to come in 23rd in 3 h 35m although in a tough category he was only 7th Over 50. Jane Briggs and Mike Steven, however, were both 2nd in their O/50 and O/60 cats finishing together in 4:25:34. Jill Sandeman finished in 5:58:37 and was 12th O/40. Bridges of the Tyne Race
Sam Hancox was second in the Bridges of the Tyne race hosted by Tyne Bridge Harriers and run on a balmy Tuesday evening (2nd July 2019. In a race he had previously won last year, he narrowly lost out to Jarlath McKenna of Bristol and West AC by a margin of seconds with a time of 25 minutes and 9 seconds for the 5 mile course. He had the consolation, however, of finishing as North East Champion for the distance, with McKenna not counting as representing a club from outside the area. There was a medal performance also from Rachelle Falloon, third woman in 30m 22s behind Danielle Smythe of Heaton Harriers and Georgia Campbell who both clocked 29m 48s. Jason Dawson was 58th and 3rd O/45 in 30m 26s. Other Morpeth performances included: Shaun Land, 69th in 31m 04s; Jamie Johnson, 70th in 31m 08s; Helen King and Gemma Floyd, 2nd and 3rd Over 40s respectively in 31m 42s and 32m 23s and Claire Calverley, 9th O/40 in 37m 19s. North of England Masters Track and Field Championships Gavin Bayne had an early start when he travelled down to the city of Hull on the last weekend in June for the North of England Masters Track and Field Championships. His journey was worth it, however, as, now a year older and at the top end of his category, he still retained his Over 60 1500m title with a super run in a time of 5m 17s. ‘I went out hard and tried to just keep it going, despite the hamstring niggle – my best run of the year,’ he later commented, his elation later tempered by the ongoing chaos at NUFC…. Other News...................... There were a couple of half-marathon victories by Morpeth Harriers towards the end of June. Despite managing to get himself lost when in the lead after only a few miles, Jordan Scott managed to re-find the route of the Penshaw Hill race (part of the ‘Trail Outlaws’ series) to win in a time of 1 hour 30 minutes and 15 seconds. No such problems for Andy Hebden, now an Over 40, as he won the hilly Coquet Valley half marathon out of Rothbury in a time of 1:23:40. Rory Leonard and Phillip Winkler of Morpeth Harriers both ran respective lifetime bests of 4m12.76s and 4m28.35s in the Men’s 1 Mile A Race, held in conjunction with other events, at the Regional BMC Meeting,
held at Leeds Beckett University on the evening of Monday 1st July 2019. Leonard won the event by a margin of nearly two seconds from Kendal’s Under 23 Man Alexander Birkett, and Winkler meanwhile finished sixth in the strong field of seven. Morpeth Harrier Ben Waterfield was deservedly rewarded for his April 2019 performances on the evening of Monday 1st July 2019 , when he was presented with a Certificate of Achievement by the clubs Coaching Secretary Mark Brown at their Clubhouse on Mitford Road, on behalf of Reeves the Pensions Specialist, who are sponsoring the current Athlete of the Month scheme.
During April, on the Track, Waterfield was competing in his new age group, Under 17, for the first time, and in his opening outing, which was in the North Eastern Grand Prix Meeting at Monkton Stadium on Wednesday 24th, where he produced new figures of 4m23.02s, which meant that he had taken a whole ten seconds off his previous best, On the same evening, he posted a new personal best of 39.76s, making him fifth fastest Under 17 Man in the Graded 300m event. Four days later, Waterfield really excelled himself at the opening NEYDL fixture at Middlesbrough, where he won the 800m A Race, taking almost four seconds off his previous figures, and in addition, he ran the 400m for the first time ever, where he finished a close second in the A Race, posting a time of 54.58s, which took him at the time, to No 6 in the regional rankings. At the same meeting, he also cleared 1.50m, to finish second in the High Jump. Still competing as an Under 15 Boy on the road, finishing fourth in 8m25s, Ben led Morpeth Harriers home to an excellent team victory in the Elswick Good Friday Road Races at Newburn Business Park. Ben now joins club colleagues Euan Duffin, Holly Peck, Ryan Davies, Ross Charlton, Daniel Melling., and Jessica Gardiner in the melting pot for a more lucrative award at the end of the current sponsorship period in September. Five more hopefuls now remain to be judged upon before then. On Sunday 30th June 2019, on the eve of her 28th Birthday, in what was her first official track outing of the current domestic season, Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman ran her way into the record books, when finishing fifth in a star studded Women’s 3000m, at the annual Prefontaine Classic, which is part of the IAAF Diamond League programme.
The event, is traditionally held at Eugene in Oregon, USA on Heywards Field, however on this occasion, due to renovation works being carried out, had to be transferred to Cobb Track and Angell Field in Stanford University in California, which meant a little rerouting was required in order to compete. Undeterred, Weightman who has been using the USA as a training base for a few weeks, set about the task in hand, and not only recorded the fastest time by a British Woman this year, with her excellent posting of 8m26.07s, bettered her own personal best by nearly twenty seconds to that achieved nearly six years ago in the Trafford Grand Prix. It also now makes her second in the all time British Rankings behind Paula Radcliffe, who achieved figures of 8m22.20s in Monte Carlo in 2002. Weightman also moves slightly ahead of fellow International Laura Muir, who achieved a best for the distance of 8m26.41s, in 2017 at the IAAF World Indoor Tour Meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, and the Morpeth International is now ranked also 27th in the World Rankings, following Sunday’s performance, in a superbly talented race that was won by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, in a time of 8m18.49s, with second place going to Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen (8m20.07s), with third place going to Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey (8m20.27s), all three athletes achieving new personal bests, as did the fourth placed athlete, the very familiar Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia, who posted a time of 8m21.29s. This left a small gap to Weightman, who finished just ahead of a most formidable opponent in Kenya’s Helen Obiri, the current Women’s World 5000m Champion. |
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