Monthly one mile road races have recently become a feature of the Summer racing scene, with one such event held last Wednesday at South Shields and another race two days later at Blyth, both runs taking place along the sea front.
Morpeth’s Peter Smallcombe, now being guided by club president Jim Alder MBE, won the fixture south of the river with a fine clocking of 4 minutes 26 seconds. Meanwhile two of the club’s leading veterans were in action at Blyth, with Over 65 Gavin Bayne running 6:11 and O/70 Pam Woodcock 8:20. Websites for both events with the results are here: Shields and Blyth Tuesday evening saw Sam Hancox win his second local race in a fortnight, taking the popular Bridges of the Tyne race for the second consecutive year. Sam certainly enjoys the flat and fast course along the Newcastle Quayside, with three victories and two second places in the last five stagings of the event.
This time he was part of a small leading group at the front that included Birtley AC’s Adrian Bailes and host club Tyne Bridge Harrier’s Jarlath Mckenna. Sam still had Mckenna for company as they came back under the Tyne Bridge, but a last mile of 4 minutes 39 seconds saw him put daylight between himself and the seasoned veteran, formerly of Bristol and West AC, with Hancox taking the tape in 24:52, some eleven seconds ahead of Mckenna with Bailes 3rd in 25:27. It was still a remarkable run by Mckenna, who had won the 20 mile Chevy Chase the previous Saturday in a new course record and must surely have still felt it in his legs. It was a good night all round for the Hancox family, with Rob coming in 54th in 30:37 and picking up a prize as 2nd Over 55. Club colleague Dave Stabler was 34th and 6th O/45 in 29:23. Comments Rob: ‘It’s a good event but the availability of burgers in the Tyne Bar pub help make it a favourite.’ There were two Morpeth Harriers in action at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester at the weekend.
James Young made it through qualifying in Saturday evening’s 1500m, finishing in 4th place in the third of three heats in a time of 3 minutes 42.97 seconds and going through to the final as the fastest loser. In the later 5000m, run as a straight final, Scott Beattie finished in 7th place in a time of 13:44.29, with the race won by Tonbridge AC runner James West in 13:42.03 ahead of Leeds City’s Emile Cairess and Stroud and District AC’s Thomas Mortimer. Young returned less than 24 hours later for a very competitive final in the 1500m, which was won by the experienced Neil Gourley (Giffnoch North AC) in 3:46.16 with Birchfield Harrier Elliot Giles 2nd (3:46.48) and George Mills of Brighton Phoenix (son of Leeds United and England full-back Danny Mills) 3rd in 3:46.57. After being in a promising position with 250m to go, James finished 10th overall in 3:49.21. Morpeth’s long hold on the local Weetslade Relays, held at Lockey Park at Wideopen and hosted by Claremont Road Runners - which had seen a five-year winning streak and six overall victories - was finally broken last Wednesday as the club lost out to a determined Sunderland Harriers.
The race claims to be the first in the country to have a unique male/veteran (of either sex)/female category, which certainly makes it a difficult one for team organisers to marshall the troops for, but its popularity has soared, with over 100 teams out this time and clubs restricted to a maximum of six each. Having been beaten by Morpeth last year by a matter of seconds, the Wearside outfit looked in determined mode this time as they put out a very strong team who were always out in front. Veteran Liam Taylor headed their challenge, coming home in the evening’s fastest time of 13 minutes 9 seconds for the 2.65 mile, lung-bursting climb of the old Weetslade spoil heap. Behind Taylor, young Tom Prentice, in his first relay outing for Morpeth, came in with a sprint finish in 2nd place in 13:31 with Wallsend in third. Sunderland youngster Jess Fox extended their lead on leg 2 with a clocking of 15:55, with Morpeth looking to Gemma Floyd for vet legs (17:28). For Wallsend, Jennifer Berry ran one of the evening’s fastest times of 15:42 to move them back into 2nd place. (Fastest overall female time of the night incidentally was by Elswick vet Justina Heslop, 15:21). Stephen Jackson’s third leg of 13:24 meant a cumulative time of 42:24 for Sunderland, but George Lowry ran an excellent last leg of 13:13, the second fastest time of the night, to gain a fine 2nd place team finish (44:12) ahead of 3rd place Wallsend Harriers (44:19). Morpeth’s B team of Mark Banks (13:53), Lizzie Rank (16:49, the club’s fastest female time of the evening) and Andrew Lawrence (14:18) also had a fine run and were 4th in 45:00. The C team of Dave Stabler (15:07), Jane Kirby (18:27) and John Butters (14:31) made it three teams in the top twenty with a strong 16th. Jake Parmley, Stephen Cessford, James Dixon and Laura Mclean all made relay debuts for the club, with further teams in 27th, 44th and 46th, all comfortably in the top half of the field. D: Jake Parmley (15:30), Tayla Douglas (18:21), Anthony Liddle (15:55) 49:46 E: Gavin Bayne (17:14), Lindsey Quinn (17:52), Stephen Cessford (17:05) 52:11 F: James Dixon (15:03), Laura Mclean (20:01), Mike Winter (17:26) 52:30 Incidentally, in addition to welcome cash prizes, the goody bags randomly distributed at the end remain among the oddest ever known in races, Morpeth’s including this year: a roll of toilet paper printed with the words ‘Crime Scene’, a copy of the novel Elmet by Fiona Mozley, nominated for the 2017 Man Booker prize, a small boxed icon of the Holy Family and sundry exotic smellies. Hmmm. For Stuart Whitman's gallery of photos from the event click here. There were eight Morpeth Harriers, several wearing the vest of Northumberland Fell Runners, among the 175 finishers at the 66th annual Chevy Chase fell race on Saturday.
Described by organisers Wooler Running Club as ‘a rewarding and demanding personal challenge’, the race was run over the now established twenty mile circular route that takes in demanding ascents and descents of both Cheviot and Hedgehope, and was won once again won by veteran Jarlath Mckenna, now with Tyne Bridge, in a time of 2 hours 38 minutes 56 seconds, some three minutes faster than last year. Remarkably, Mckenna finished over 21 minutes ahead of nearest rivals Hamish Murray from Keswick and Craig Jones from Tyne Bridge in 2nd and 3rd, with Keswick’s Shirley Murray fastest female finisher in 3:26:18. Carnethy’s Jill Mykura was 2nd in 3:37:30 and Wallsend’s Jennifer Berry 3rd in 3:47:59. In his first Chevy Chase, Alistair Douglas was 28th and first back for Morpeth in 3:49:17 with NFR member Gary Mason 52nd in 4:10:36. Running together, Jane Kirby and Anna Wright, who had both run the Edinburgh Marathon a few weeks ago, were 70th and 71st and 9th and 10th female finishers in 4:29:59. Jamie Johnson was 74th and Mike Winter 75th in the same time (4:30:26) also running together, while Gwenda Cavill was 85th in 4:35:47 and Claire Calverley, thankfully avoiding injury this time, was 88th in 4:37:18. |
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