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. Hi everyone
Just a reminder that our new T shirts, which come in sizes to fit adults and young athletes are now available to order at the clubhouse. There’s also a long sleeved version, for cooler days. With luck, you’ll be needing some of these pretty soon. A snip at only £15 each. As ever, call into the clubhouse and try for size. Any questions? Just holler Pam Woodcock Morpeth Harrier Carl Avery produced a personal best performance when finishing sixth in a 22 strong field of worthy competitors in the Men’s 3000m A Race, at the BMC Grand Prix Meeting,
held at Watford on Saturday evening 29th June 2019. Avery posted a finishing time of 8m10.81s, taking almost seven and a half seconds off his previous figures, recorded at Scotstoun in a BMC Regional meeting, just over a year ago. Saturday’s event was won by Irish Under 20 athlete Darragh Mcelhinney, from Bantry, who posted a winning time of 8m01.48s. Another Morpeth Harrier in action at Watford on Saturday was James Young. Young finished ninth in a talent filled Men’s 1500m A Race, won by Scottish International Andrew Butchart, who posted a winning time of 3m38.84s. Meanwhile Young’s finishing time of 3m45.30s, was just a mere second adrift of his personal best. |
Archives
April 2024
|