5k and 10k races have taken place over two recent weekends at the Middlesborough Sports Village following what seems to be a quickly established national pattern of graded heats. The Endeavour 5 and 10k runs were held on a one kilometre closed circuit with a number of Morpeth Harriers to the fore.
The first of these on 11 April saw Alex Brown set a new personal best in winning the fastest heat with a time of 14: 23. In the same heat, fellow Harriers Kieran Hedley and Sam Hancox also ran well, with a pb for Hedley, sixth in 14:58 and an eighth place for Hancox in 15:02. There were also pbs for Under 20 Dan Melling (15:21), U/17 Joe Anderson (16:40) and U/15 Will de Vere Owen (15:57 in later heats. Meanwhile, leading world O/55 Guy Bracken showed he was on the comeback trail with a time of 16:30. Last weekend the follow-up 10k took place with Sam Hancox again involved. After being in the thick of the action for most of the race and set for a pb of close to 30 minutes, young Sam unfortunately collapsed within yards of the finishing line and ended up with a dnf to his name. Fortunately, no serious damage seems to have been done and a combination of the heat plus the Hancox’s ability to seemingly push themselves to the limits seems to have been the reason. Rob reports that Sam was even well enough to take on board the traditional post-race Macdonalds! Won by Lewis Gamble-Thompson of New Markse in 30:03, Tommy Straughan in 7th (32:42) and Adam Pratt in 8th (32:57) both had good runs. In the following heat Mark Snowball came in in 2nd place (36:38) behind Wallsend’s Danielle Hodgkinson (34:44). Click here for a gallery of images from the 10k event by Karen Harland. by Peter Scaife The first Track and Field meeting to be held at KEVI this year took place under balmy spring skies on Sunday. Organised by North East Counties Athletics Association in accordance with UKA Covid guidance, athletes were given the chance to compete in 200, 800 and 3000 metre events, with field opportunities in the Hammer, Long Jump, Discus and Shot Putt this time. First up for Morpeth in the 200m was O/60 Paul Bellingham, clocking 30.90s in his heat, and followed by O/50 Jason Dawson who won his with a time of 27.96 seconds, Neil McAnany recording 29.82 in the same heat. U/17 Ellie Wickens was 2nd in hers with 29.18s. 400m hurdler specialist Nisha Desai posted 27.20s in heat 10, with Josh Adams running the club’s fastest time of the day, 24.75s, in heat 11. Fastest run of the day overall was by Gateshead’s Matthew Williamson when winning heat 12 in 23.44s. There were some good performances in the following 800m track races, Josh’s father Eric winning his heat in 2 minutes 26:01 seconds and Under 15 Oliver Tomlinson racing well to take heat 9 in 2:21:08, his younger sister Emma having run 2:50:99 in heat 2. Lindsey Quinn was 3rd in heat 7 in 2:34:14 with U/15 Kate Kennedy behind her in 2:39:72. U/15 Joe Close ran 2:13:12 in heat 12, with the club’s fastest time of the day by Liam Roche when finishing 4th in the next heat in 2:06:98. Jason Dawson doubled up in heat 9 to record 2:24:97. Gateshead’s impressive Under 20 David Race picked up where he left off last year by recording the day’s fastest time of 1:52:36. Both Tomlinsons, Close and Roche were all among athletes who recorded personal bests. There were only four heats of the day’s last track race the 3000m, with U/17 Ryan Davies setting a new personal best but just losing out to Blaydon’s Will Collinson having led for much of the way in heat 3 (9:21:04). Loughborough student and U/20 Dan Melling ran Morpeth’s fastest time of the day of 8:52:74 in heat 4, won by Loughborough colleague Blyth Harrier Josh Fiddaman with a tremendous kick over the last 200m in 8:45:06. Behind Melling U/17s Bertie Marr (9:14:31) and Will de Vere Owen (9:17:17) placed 6th and 7th. Melling, Marr and de Vere Owen also all ran pbs. O/60 and O/65 vets Andrew Dippie and Dave Nicholson clocked 12:35:17 and 11:17:39 respectively in earlier heats. In the field, Morpeth’s furthest long jump of the day was by Abbie Ross with 4 metres 87 centimetres, some 35 cms behind winner Amy Stewart of South Shields. Gateshead’s Joseph Grey jumped 5:88m for longest overall.
Brother and sister team of Jess and Ed Gardiner had a busy afternoon, competing in both Discus and Hammer. Jess threw 32 metres 10 cms in the Discus with younger brother Ed 29:32. Longest throw of the day was by NSP’s James Wordsworth with 46m. In her first competitive outing of the year in main specialism of the Hammer, Jess was a little down on her best with a throw of 37:87m, but with little technical training possible over the last few months, improvements will come as training resumes in earnest. Gateshead’s Lexie Ellis was just ahead with 38:56m and Border Harrier Damon King threw 45:89m. Ed Gardiner threw 28:58 in his first competition with the heavier hammer. As at the previous weekend’s Cross Country Relays at Thornley, however, while many athletes professed themselves understandably a little rusty and out of sorts, all participants, the handful of permitted spectators, the coaches and officials were again delighted to see some degree of normality resuming to the sport. However, the number of Morpeth Harriers taking part, particularly in comparison with local rivals such as Gateshead and NSP was disappointingly low, Track and Field competition having perhaps come a bit too early for many. James Young continued his fine run of early season form with an outstanding time of 3 minutes 37.2 seconds when winning the 1500 metres at The Bryan Clay Invitational meet at Azusa, California last weekend.
The Academy of Art student’s performance came a month after his 4:00:04 for the mile indoors, and sees Young fifth in the UK rankings for the year so far. James was also less than a couple of seconds off the Morpeth Harriers 1500m record of 3:35:74 held by Nick McCormick and set at Crystal Palace in 2005. Nothing to do with Inspector Morse, the Endeavour 5k took place over a flat one kilometre closed road circuit at Middlesbrough Sports Village on Sunday, 11 April.
Having been sadly cancelled a couple of times due to restrictions in place, the event followed what is now becoming an established pattern of graded heats with many athletes recording not just fast times but personal bests. Alex Brown's 14 minutes 23 seconds was the fastest time of the day and a new pb as he won his heat ahead of Middlesbrough Mandale’s Josh Cowperthwaite (14:27) and New Marske’s Lewis Gamble-Thompson (14:28). Morpeth's Kieran Hedley placed in 6th with a pb of 14:58, and Sam Hancox was one place behind in 15:02. In the previous heat U/20 Dan Melling recorded a pb of 15:21 when finishing 5th, a couple of places ahead of Tom Straughan (15:37). Guy Bracken, now getting to the top end of the O/55 vets, showed he is getting over injury scares and starting to come back to his best when clocking 16:30. U/17 Joe Anderson followed him home in 17th in 16:40, also a pb. Will de Vere Owen, still an Under 15, was 2nd in heat 3 in 15:57 (pb). by Peter Scaife April’s easing of lockdown saw Senior and Masters athletes back into some eagerly-awaited competitive action at the NECAA Championship Relays held at Thornley Farm, Peterlee on Saturday. Giving a respectable account of themselves, Morpeth medalled in three out of the five competitions, with bronzes in both the Senior Men’s and Women’s events and an outstanding gold for the male Under 20s, although the most noticeable feature of the day were the smiles worn by so many athletes just happy to be back in business. Meticulously organised by Archie Jenkins and the NECAA team under EA Covid-secure guidance, spectators were kept at a distance although there was still a decent view of the opening and finishing straights, with bright sunshine for much of the day and even the sight of the first swallow of spring. The course itself was a 3k loop for all with an ascent after the first kilometre, although the biggest challenge many runners reported was the tussocky and uneven ground which had dried out completely over the last month making the choice of shoe difficult. First up was the Masters Women race, won by NSP in a time of 38:32 with Elvet Striders in second and Elswick Harriers in third. Alison Dargie of Tyne Bridge ran the day’s fastest leg of 12:14.
Morpeth’s team was headed by Claire Calverley with a leg of 14:02, with credit to Jill Bennett (16:29) and Shuna Rank (15:30) for stepping into the breach at short notice to make sure the club had a full team out. Sunderland Harriers headed the Masters Men with a finishing time of 31:33, Michael Barker running the fastest leg of the day with 10:09, with Darlington Harriers in second and Elvet Striders again third. Morpeth’s A was led out by Andrew Hebden in 10:58, with Will Clark running the team’s fastest time of 10:50 and a not fully fit Lee Bennett not quite able to get into a medal position (11:04). The team finished a decent fifth. The B team of 0/65 Dave Nicholson (12:30), Eric Adams (12:09) and Ed Hillier (11:54) came in in 20th position overall out of some 37 teams but also enjoyed the chance to stretch their legs again. The club’s first medal came in the day’s third event, the Senior Women’s race with the three Macdonald sisters, Lorna, Lindsey and Cat, representing the club’s A team. Fighting off raging toothache and turning an ankle no less than four times, Lorna gamely made it back at a hobble on leg 1 in 12: 53. Lindsey got the club back into contention quickly on the next leg, coming home in fourth place (12: 36) but it was down to youngest sister Cat (12:06) to move the club into a medal position. Early leaders Elswick Harriers, for whom a flying Amy Fuller clocked the day’s fastest leg of 10:55 on leg 1, and second place Gateshead were by then too far ahead sadly to make further headway. A strong Women’s B team was hit by Robyn Bennett’s adverse reaction to vaccination late on Friday, but credit to Lizzie Rank and Tayla Murdy for still turning out. In her first race in a Morpeth vest for over six years and her first ever as a Senior, Lizzie showed herself in no way overawed on the first leg, coming back in eighth place with a time of 12:36, with Tayla clocking 13:42. Had Robyn not been struck down, the team would certainly have made top ten, something which bodes well for Senior Women’s outfits in the future. The four-stage Senior Men’s Relay turned out to be a battle between Gateshead and Sunderland Harriers, with the intervention of National Cross Country Champion Calum Johnson (who had also run in the men’s race in Wigan) on leg 3 proving decisive in Gateshead’s final victory. Johnson was the only athlete running under nine minutes in fact on the day (8:54), with Gateshead’s overall time of 38:40 some fifteen seconds ahead of Sunderland. Jordan Scott (9:54) ran Morpeth’s fastest time of the day on leg 1 to put the club into fourth position behind Gateshead, Sunderland and Tyne Bridge, a place maintained by second leg runner Andy Lawrence (10:20). It was Adam Pratt (10.03) who got ahead of Tyne Bridge to move the club into third, with Ali Douglas on leg 4 (9:56) comfortably keeping them there for a final time of 40:13. It was a good outing also by a B team of Mark Snowball (11:01), Shaun Land (11:30), Ricky Stafford (11:28) and Liam Roarty (10:04), with Land and Stafford getting their first taste of Senior Relays. The team finished in a strong sixth place. Highlight of the day for the club was perhaps the form shown by Matthew Briggs, Rowan Bennett and Ross Charlton in winning the Under 20 Men’s race. Lancaster University student Briggs was already out of sight after leg 1 with a tremendous clocking of 9 minutes 47 seconds and after Rowan Bennett had maintained the lead (10:36), Bath University pentathlete Ross Charlton brought the team home with a very impressive 9:38 for the last leg. Charlton’s time was actually the third fastest clocked over the distance by any athlete all afternoon and shows the excellent progress he continues to make, with Briggs running the day’s eighth fastest overall also. Congratulations are also due to Connor Marshall, running in an incomplete B team, who also had a very strong run with a first leg clocking of 10:16. A great day out by all then, but perhaps the sport itself was the overall winner, with huge thanks going out to the organisers and all the officials and marshals, who included our own Kevin Bray and Gavin Bayne. Onwards and upwards. |
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