Daniel Dixon missed out on a gold medal by the agonising margin of only six seconds in the Junior Men’s Final of the European Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships in Kitzbuhel, Austria at the weekend.
First out of the water after the swim, Dixon had a terrific tussle with German rival Henry Graf throughout the fiercely-contested competition. Entering second transition neck and neck, Dixon’s bike became unfortunately tangled up with another's in a very congested zone, so he entered the run phase some eight seconds behind his rival. Pushing hard on the run, Dixon actually got ahead on the second lap but, having given everything, finally lost out by a very narrow margin to Graf. Understandably disappointed, his silver medal in a major competition is nevertheless another fantastic achievement and a further staging post in the remarkable progress of the young athlete. In what was his only his third competitive 400m for over two years, Loughborough University student and Morpeth Harrier Matthew Waterfield produced a top-drawer performance to win a Northern Athletics Championship silver medal at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday.
Clocking a season’s best of 49.57s, he only lost out for gold by a mere fraction of a second to fellow Under 23 athlete Rory Keen of Sale Harriers in the senior men’s championship, so going one better than the bronze that he won at Sports City in 2019. Waterfield had previously finished second to Keen in his earlier run heat. Waterfield’s silver was matched by club colleague Charlotte Earl in the Under 20 Triple Jump, who leaped 10 metres 92 centimetres to finish in second place to Holly Aitchison of Stockport who won with 11.70m. Charlotte was only 20 cms off her personal best but, like many others, still finding her way back to competitive action. Another Morpeth sprinter in action on the first day was Under 23 athlete Jessica Young-Rogers, who finished fifth in the final in 12.51s after finishing third in her heat of the Senior Women’s 100m in a season’s best of 12.38s. In the senior men’s 1500m final, Morpeth’s Alistair Douglass finished ninth in 4m04.09s, a second adrift of his personal best. Elsewhere on the track, Morpeth’s Under 23 athletes Rory Leonard and Alex Brown were both in 5000m action at the high-profile BMC Grand Prix Meeting held at Watford on Saturday evening. Leonard finished a good fourth in a strong field in the men’s A race, posting a finishing time of 13m55.3s, which was around five seconds adrift of his personal best for the twelve and a half lap distance. In the B race, Brown finished 24th, but bettered his two-year-old personal best by thirty-eight seconds, when he finished with a clocking of 14m46.85s. A more committed performance and a bigger turnout helped Morpeth Harriers Senior Track and Field squad achieve an improved result in their second round Northern Premier League match, held at Middlesbrough Sports Village on Sunday 6 June. Whilst host club New Marske Harriers were the most dominant on the day, pulling off a marginal victory over first round winners Gateshead Harriers, Morpeth were not far behind in third place, with Wallsend/Blyth fourth, Middlesbrough AC (Mandale) fifth, and North Shields Poly sixth. One well worthy of note is that of Lorna MacDonald who became a legend in her own lunchtime. Lorna, who is currently working at nearby James Cook Hospital on acute medicine in A&E, used her own lunch break to take part in the Women’s 3000m, and afterwards, quickly returned to her post in the hospital. She certainly played a vital part in her club's on the day performance, as she finished second in the A string, posting a finishing time of 11m00.20s, which was less than a second outside her personal best. Apart from her work, Lorna is at present in the middle of an extremely competitive period, having to prepare herself for Triathlon and Ironman events, in addition to her Morpeth commitments, and Army career. The women’s 3000m was a good overall result for Morpeth, with Michelle Thompson taking the B race in 12m13.90s. It was a good day for the women’s section of Morpeth Harriers, as Vina Desai’s squad, managed another five A string wins, and another three B string wins, along with a very welcome 4x100m victory, spearheaded by the return of regular sprint specialist Jessica Young-Rogers, who had been forced to miss the first-round match last month. The club enjoyed three double victories on the day from the women’s section. Young-Rogers certainly made her presence felt, as she secured wins in both the 100m and 200m, posting respective times of 12.6s, and 26.3s. It was again, an excellent day for the Morpeth women’s team manager’s daughter Nisha, as she won the A string 400m and 400m Hurdles events, posting respective times of 59.1s, and 62.2s, both performances being season's bests.
Desai also played her part in the 4x100m victory, and the second place by Morpeth’s 4 x 400m squad. She also backed up Young-Rogers’s 100m victory, by finishing as second B string in 13.4s. Under 17 athlete Olivia Gent finished as third B string in the 200m in 30.4s. Kay Errington, volunteered her services to take part in the B string 400m Hurdles, making it a Morpeth double victory, winning in 78.50s, this being her first ever attempt at the event, which brought a welcome smile to the Morpeth team manager. Backing up Desai’s 400m victory, was Laura Kincaid, who finished second in the B Race in 69.8s, a season’s best performance. Jessica Gardiner threw 29.85m to win the A String discus, and 37.20m, to finish second in the A String hammer for Morpeth. She came awfully close to a new personal best with her final hammer throw, but unfortunately had nudged the board with her toe, resulting in her fouling the effort sadly. Backing up Jessica for Morpeth in the B string hammer and discus was Claire Reid, who threw 22.19m for fourth place in the former, and 25.25m in the latter, which gave her a B string win, which of course secured a double victory here. Reid finished third in the A string shot (9.43m), and Nisha Desai was third B String with 7.01m. There was a good Morpeth result in the women’s triple jump, where Under 20 athlete Charlotte Earl finished as second A string (11.08m), just outside her personal best, and Under 17 athlete Olivia Gent won the B String (8.58m), also just a mere fraction adrift of her personal best. Earl also finished third in the A string long jump (4.78m), a new personal best, and Jess Young-Rogers finished as second B String (4.16m). Back to the women’s track events and the middle-distance races. Morpeth’s Caitlin Flanagan was fourth finisher in the 800m A race, posting a time of 2m35.2s, and Tayla Murdy finished third in the B Race in 2m43.2s. Tayla also ran the 1500m, finishing as fourth in the A Race in 5m39.1s, and Kay Errington recovered from her earlier exploits in the 400m Hurdles, to finish fourth in the B Race in 6m01.4s. On to the men’s events, where Morpeth secured two A string victories and three B string victories amongst their day's performances, under the management of David Swinburne, who remained upbeat despite the lack of availability of some athletes. The best performance came in the men’s steeplechase, where former Northern Champion Adam Pratt secured an A string win in 10m25.8s, and Mark Snowball took the B race in 11.15.8s. Pratt also put his jumping abilities to good use for his club, by finishing second in the A string 400m hurdles, posting a time of 64.0s. Alistair Douglass, who again put in a hard day of work, secured a victory in the A string 800m, posting a time of 1m58.2s. Andrew Lawrence finished third in the B String in 2m16.7s. Douglass also finished fifth in the A String 400m in 53.10s. Under 20 athlete Charlie Lane finished second in the B String event, posting 53.80s, a brand-new personal best. An excellent Morpeth result was achieved in the Men’s 1500m, where Connor Marshall finished second in the A race, posting a new personal best of 4m15.30s, taking almost three seconds off his previous figures. The result was made even sweeter, as Liam Roarty, making his Northern League debut for Morpeth, secured victory in the B Race in 4m24.4s. Morpeth also had some success in the 5000m, courtesy of Ross Floyd finishing second in the A race in 15m59.60s, and Andrew Lawrence taking the B race in 16m43.20s. Unfortunately, the Morpeth men lacked depth in the field events, where the best result came from the long jump, with Adam Pratt securing fifth place in the A string with 4.48m, and Andrew Lawrence finished fourth in the B string with 3.76m. The hardworking and dependable Alistair Douglass secured fifth place in the A string discus with a best effort of 20.48m. Morpeth’s Men’s 4x400m squad finished third in 3m59.20s, with Douglass running their fastest leg of 54.0s on the third leg. Final match scores are still under scrutiny. The main event of the third North Eastern Grand Prix Meeting was the opening heat in the series of five, one-mile races, named and held in honour of legendary Gateshead Harriers Coach Stan Long, long-term mentor of Brendan Foster.
Probably most appropriately it was a Gateshead Harrier Matt Linsley who received the winner’s trophy from Stan’s daughter Christine. But before he could, he had to shake off the relentless competition around him, that also included Morpeth Harrier Alistair Douglass, who only lost out for victory in a close run in by two seconds, posting a new personal best time of 4m21.54s, taking twelve seconds off his previous figures. Three other Morpeth Harriers also took part in the main event, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium, on the evening of Wednesday 2 June, all of them achieving personal best performances. Bertie Marr finished ninth in 4m33.58s, improving on previous figures by six seconds. Joseph Anderson who finished tenth in 4m36.79s, improved on his previous figures by a massive sixteen seconds, and Joe Dixon placed thirteenth in 4m45.56s, taking three seconds off his previous figures. One of the Morpeth runs of the nigh was achieved by Under 15 Boy Joseph Close who, running the mile distance for the first time, just lost out for victory to Sunderland Under 17 athlete Adam Hughes by a second, when he clocked an excellent 4m53.23s. Another first time Morpeth Harrier in this event was fellow Under 15 Boy Oliver Tomlinson, who finished tenth in 5m02.44s. Morpeth Harriers had three excellent performers in the third heat of the mile races. Lizzie Rank ran excellently throughout, to just lose out for victory to Gateshead Harrier Marina Swift by a fraction of a second, as she posted a first-time finishing figure of 5m38.41s. Third and fourth places went to Morpeth pair Caitlin Flanagan and Tabitha Robson, who posted close finishing times of 5m39.00s, and 5m39.13s, respectively. For Flannigan it gave her a seven second improvement on previous figures, and for Robson it was a first time running of the distance. In the second heat of the five-mile events, Morpeth Harriers had three athletes facing the starter. Senior Woman Tayla Murdy finished fifth in 5m57.59s, improving her previous figures by seven seconds. Under 13 Girl Emma Tomlinson, younger sister of Oliver ran the distance for the first time, finishing twelfth in twelfth in 6m22.15s, one place ahead of Morpeth Veteran man Andrew Dippie, who clocked 6m27.43s. Morpeth Harriers other athlete in action on the night was Over 50 Veteran man Jason Dawson, who finished sixth in heat two of four 400m events, posting a new personal best time of 60.73s. Sam Hancox pulled off a memorable victory on Saturday night in his heat of the 5000m in Manchester.
Held at the Sport City complex just outside the Etihad Arena, the British Milers Club event hosted a number of high quality middle distance performances. Competing over the distance on the track for the first time in his C heat, Hancox looked very comfortable as he picked off his rivals one by one over the twelve and a half lap distance, finding himself at the front of the race on his own for the final 800m. His time of 14 minutes 47.50 seconds was a new personal best for the distance and was ahead of many athletes in both B and even A races. A big post race smile afterwards reflected the progress he is continuing to make, now under the coaching of Tony Leonard. Other Morpeth Harriers taking part on the night were Alex Brown, who improved his pb by one second in the 1500m when finishing in 6th place in his heat in a time of 3m 56:14s, and Ali Douglass, who posted a season’s best of 1m 55:43s when finishing 5th in his 800m, only a fraction of a second off his best ever time. |
Archives
April 2024
|