It was left to the Female Members of Morpeth Harriers to fly the club flag
at the annual Wallsend Harriers Gordon Smith Memorial Relays, held on a new course at West Allotment, on Wednesday 11th May. The event, run in memory of the former Wallsend Harriers Chairman attracted a field of 137 complete teams, 74 Male and 63 Female, and Morpeth Harriers fielded four competitive Female Teams, all in determined mood for action, and the club managed to get on the podium by finishing second to a very strong Elswick Harriers squad, who were very much buoyed by Justina Heslop, who brought them home to a thirty three second margin victory, by clocking the fastest time over the approximately two mile course, with an excellent 10m52s. Second fastest Female of the night was Morpeth Harriers final leg runner Sarah Wilkinson, who brought the club home to a Silver medal placing with her clocking of 11m28s. Morpeth had held the lead throughout the first two legs courtesy of Gemma Floyd (11m51s), and Alison Brown (13m07s). Floyd’s time eventually emerged as the third fastest Female time of the night. The club’s next placed Women’s team finished 23rd, courtesy of excellent running by Shuna Rank (14m50s), Jane Kirby (14m24s), and Jo Carruthers (13m22s). Morpeth Harriers C and D Teams finished in 39th and 53rd respectively. The C team performances were Sue Smith (15m10s), Pam Woodcock (15m27s), and Carol Parry 14m55s. D team performances came from Frances Naylor (16m13s), Claire Walker (15m24s), and Claire Hiscock (17m12s). The Morpeth Women’s squads very much described their night’s running as a great social occasion, which was well laced by landing a well earned podium place for their A team, and the squad cannot wait till their next team outing, when it will definitely be Morpeth Women Rule !!
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At the Northern Athletics Womens 6 Stage Road Relay Championships,
held at Silksworth Sports Complex, near Sunderland on Saturday 2nd April, Morpeth Harriers Senior Women’s 6 Stage squad won a set of Bronze team medals. Morag Stead ran well on the long Stage One, finishing tenth in 24m24s, which put them seventy three seconds adrift of early leaders Rotherham, who managed to hold the lead on the short Stage Two, whilst Josie Cram moved the Morpeth Women’s A team up to eighth, posting the eighth fastest time of the leg of 13m21s. The short Third Stage saw big developments for the Morpeth Women’s A team however, as Laura Weightman got round the course in 11m07s, easily the fastest short leg time of the day, and one which saw her take her club up to third, and into the medals. So at the halfway point in proceedings Morpeth were now only forty six seconds adrift of the leaders Rotherham, who were nine seconds ahead of second placed Leeds City. On the long Stage Four, Rotherham fell back to second while Leeds City took command, courtesy of Northern Cross Country Champion and English National Cross Country Silver medallist Claire Duck, who ran the fastest Women’s Long Stage time of 22m01s. Whilst Morpeth’s Emma Holt remained in third place throughout the fourth Stage, she had eaten well into Rotherham’s time difference, by finishing only a mere eight seconds adrift of them; however Leeds City had now drawn well clear. Emma clocked the second fastest time of the fourth leg, with a posting of 23m11s. Morpeth’s fifth leg runner Gemma Floyd tried to make some impact on the Rotherham margin, however despite clocking the Leg’s third fastest time of 13m18s, she couldn’t quite get to the Silver medal placing. Whilst Leeds City drew clear on the sixth and final leg, Rotherham managed to maintain their hold on second place, despite Sarah Wilkinson’s valiant last gasp Morpeth effort, which saw her clock the fourth fastest time of the leg, which gave them the well deserved Bronze medals. Meanwhile Morpeth Harriers Women’s B team did exceptionally well to finish in fourteenth place out of 32 complete teams, and were first B team, courtesy of Jane Hodgson, who began proceedings with a first leg clocking of 25m07s, which saw her finish fourteenth. We managed to enter an impressive 5 teams at the
Good Friday Senior Women Relays at Newburn. Is that a first for the Morpeth women ? The weather was glorious although unexpectedly hot to run in. It's quite early in the year to strip down to vest and shorts. The Venue was well organised although the 2 mile walk which became a sprint for first leg runners ( next year I want to be leg 3) was not enjoyable but all the same a good warm up. Well done to the Senior Ladies who took second place and an impressive run from Laura Weightman (11.08). It was also good to see Sarah Wilkinson return after a years absence due to a foot injury (12.45). Congratulations to first time relay runner Jane Kirby who was the fastest Morpeth Vet (15.37). A nice turnout from the Ranks as well, Shuna with her two daughters Lizzie and Hannah an impressive family outing. Carol Christie Morpeth Harriers Womens squad were well to the fore amongst
the honours in the at the annual Elswick Harriers Good Friday Road Races, held on the Newburn Riverside Business Park. Despite a stiff breeze, runners efforts were blessed with warm early spring sunshine, which made conditions good for relatively fast times. It certainly didn’t take long for the Senior Women’s course record to be broken. European and Commonwealth medallist Laura Weightman soon saw to that, as with her first leg posting of 11m08s, she was indeed thirteen seconds inside the old record, previously set by Sunderland Stroller’s International Alyson Dixon three years ago. Weightman was also the only Senior Woman to get below 12 minutes on the course, which definitely put her a class apart. Josie Cram took over for Morpeth on second leg, and despite running hard during the first mile of her 2.2mile leg, she was eventually caught by Birtley AC’s Tracy Millmore. Cram battled again after being caught, and she bravely managed to keep the margin down to eleven seconds as she handed over to third and final leg runner Gemma Floyd. Floyd also battled hard, but couldn’t quite match the pace of the very much younger Sophie Burnett of Birtley, who went on to take the title with just over a minute to spare, as Floyd got round in a very respectable 13m11s, to maintain second place spot ahead of Gateshead. Meanwhile the Morpeth Harriers Senior Women’s B team finished a very respectable seventh, courtesy of Abby Sheldon (14m25s), Catriona MacDonald (13m42s), and another competitive comeback athlete Sarah Wilkinson, who is also the Morpeth Women’s Team Manager (12m45s), and who certainly led by example with this performance. Morpeth Harriers also had a Women’s C team competing, who finished 22nd out of the 52 teams, courtesy of Hannah Rank (14m12s), Lizzie Rank (15m05s), and Jess Swindells (15m01s). An excellent turnout of Morpeth Harriers Senior Women for their 7k event,
saw them finish sixth on the day in Division 2, which also thankfully sees them narrowly avoid relegation to Division 3 for next term. It was also good to see Jo Carruthers back in Harrier League action for them, as she led her club, by finishing an excellent eleventh overall from the Medium Pack, posting the eighteenth fastest in the 274 strong field of finishers. Gemma Floyd was second home for the club, finishing 42nd from the Fast Pack, posting the eighth fastest time overall. Third home for Morpeth was Gwenda Cavill, who finished 62nd from the Slow Pack. Completing the Morpeth Harriers team count was Jane Briggs, who finished 153rd from the Medium Pack. Also competing on the day for Morpeth in the Senior Women’s event were Clare Walker and Frances Naylor, who finished in 210th and 233rd respectively from the Slow Pack. In Frances’s case it was her very first Harrier League outing, and she performed well on a very tough and demanding course. |
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