Sterling teamwork by those who turned out on a warm day on Saturday 5th May 2018, at Gateshead Stadium saw Morpeth Harriers & AC Men’s and Women’s Track and Field squad, finish an excellent second to hosts Gateshead Harriers, in their opening Northern Athletics League Division 2E fixture, only losing out by a few points on the day. In the Women’s events, where Morpeth enjoyed their sole double victory of the day. It came courtesy of Under 20 athlete Robyn Bennett, making her track debut for her new club following her recent transfer from Elswick, who took the 3000m A race in 10m38.08s. Three weeks ago, Lorna MacDonald was pounding the streets of London in the Marathon, on Saturday, she took to the track to win the B race in 11m15.69s, which was just five seconds adrift of her lifetime best for the seven and a half lap event. Another Northern League debutant was Holly Peck, who just missed out on victory in the 800m A race, posting a time of 2m27.80s. Running her first ever track 800m, Morpeth Veteran Woman Helen King did well to take the B race in 2m37.96s. Later in the afternoon, King produced a new personal best of 69.81s, when finishing fourth in the 400m A race. Sue Smith finished second in the B race, running the distance for the first time, posting a time of 82.73s. Another young Northern League debutant for Morpeth was Under 17 athlete Lauren Cummings, who finished fourth in the 1500m A race in 5m30.23s, which was a personal best for the distance. Backing up Lauren’s efforts in the B race was Jill Bennett, mother of Robyn, who was also making her track debut for Morpeth following her transfer from Elswick. She finished second, posting a finishing time of 6m07.90s. Jessica Young-Rogers showed excellent early season sprinting form when winning the A race of the 100m in 12.86s, getting the verdict in a photo finish with Middlesbrough AC’s Emily Hulyer. In the B race it was a Morpeth/Middlesbrough AC reversal, as Lynsey Cunningham finished second in 14.78s. The 200m saw Young-Rogers finish third in the A race in 26.73s, whilst her Morpeth club colleague Lauren Smith triumphed in the B race, posting brand new figures of 27.43s. Morpeth finished second to Middlesbrough AC in the Women’s 4 x 100m and 400m Relays, in respective times of 54.52s and 4m39.18s. The Morpeth Women’s Field Events brought one A and one B string victory, and both executed by Under 20 Woman Bobbie Griffiths. She won her favoured Javelin A string by fractionally over 3metres from Middlesbrough AC’s Saada Juma, with her on the day best of 38.00m, and 24.90m, saw her take the Discus B string. Seasoned Morpeth Veteran Claire Reid goth through her usual large workload, by finishing third in the A string Hammer (27.56m), second in the A string Discus (29.38m), second in the B string Javelin (17.29m), and third in the A string Shot Putt (9.90m). Morpeth’s other thrower was Women’s Team Manager Vina Desai, who donned her Morpeth vest after many years of absence, to finish third in the B string Hammer (16.52m), and sixth in the B string Shot Putt (4.08m). In the Jumps, Jessica Young-Rogers finished fourth in the A string Long Jump (4.40m), being well backed up by Under 17 debutant Kayleigh Wenn, who finished as second B string with her best jump of 4.20m. Wenn also finished fourth in the A string Triple Jump, with her on the day best of 8.50m. Morpeths Senior Women squad at Gateshead on Saturday 5th May 2018
(Photos courtesy of Dave Thomas)
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Organisers of the Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Harrier League
breathed a huge sigh of relief on Saturday 17th March, as they managed to complete the seasons fixtures at Alnwick Castle, amidst prolonged icy wintry showers,following on from Friday’s torrential downpour. Despite that downpour, apart from one or two boggy areas on the already tough course on the Pastures, conditions were relatively good on the testing circuit, and the ten race programme was completed without any major hitches, thanks to the excellent stewardship of organising club Alnwick Harriers, who had already experienced the disappointment of having to call off the original fixture a fortnight previous, due to heavy snowfall. However, all went well on Saturday, especially for Morpeth Harriers, whose on the day efforts secured no less than four end of season team victories, along with a good number of notable individual performances. One very notable individual performer was Jane Hodgson, who defied a 200 second handicap over most of her rivals, to win the Senior Women’s event from the Fast Pack by a margin of 1m43s over her second placed club colleague Helen King, who ran excellently from the Slow Pack. It also meant that Hodgson had a 100% record in the six counting Harrier League fixtures, making her the leading Veteran Women in the Grand Prix competition incorporated into the event. Running from the Fast Pack, Alison Brown finished in an excellent nineteenth place, and, closing the Morpeth Harriers scoring count was Susan Smith, who finished 68th from the Slow Pack, which also secured an excellent Division 1 team title into the bargain. Last season, Morpeth Harriers had won the Women’s Division 2 title to secure promotion, and to win the Division 1 title at their first attempt was a superb effort. Other Morpeth Senior Women rallying to the clubs’ cause on the day were Carol Parry (135th) (Slow Pack), Claire Hiscock (165th) (Slow Pack), Frances Naylor (166th) (Slow Pack). At the Scottish National Cross-Country Championships on Saturday 24th February at Callendar Park, Falkirk, Mhairi MacLennan took the Scottish Senior Women’s Championship by a margin of eleven seconds in Callendar Park, Falkirk, from Edinburgh University team-mate, Steph Pennycook. Meanwhile at English National Cross-Country Championships at London’s Parliament Hill Fields,
running as a lone Morpeth entrant in the Senior Women’s 8k event, Emma Holt finished in a respectable 42nd place, and was sixteenth from the North of England, but first from the region. Morpeth Harriers were particularly well represented at the annual Royal Signals Road Relays, held at Hetton Lyons Country Park on Saturday 17th February, which incorporated the North-Eastern Counties Athletics Association Championships. A mere nineteen seconds disappointingly robbed Morpeth Harriers Senior Women from
retaining their North East title for the third successive year in their four-stage contest. Despite excellent running by Holly Peck (13m30s), Catriona MacDonald (12m57s), Gracie Hufton(14m00s), and Team Captain Emma Holt (12m24s), they just couldn’t quite match the later power of Jarrow and Hebburn. It was however Peck’s very first run in a Senior competition, and for her and Hufton, their very first sharing of Senior medals, albeit Silver on this occasion. Holt was second fastest on the day behind seasoned International Aly Dixon, who posted 11m53s for Sunderland Strollers, who were third placed Women’s Veteran team, thus making Holt the fastest Senior. In the Veteran Women’s event, Morpeth Harriers finished eighth, courtesy of Vicky Gibbs (14m23s), who was making a competitive comeback, Jane Briggs (16m17s), Helen King (14m40s), and Gemma Floyd (14m53s).
Posting a finishing time of 8m59s, Morpeth’s Laura Weightman retained her 3k title in the high-profile Brooks sponsored International Women’s event in Armagh, Ireland on the evening of Thursday 15th February 2018.
She won with four seconds to spare over Chelmsford’s Jessica Judd, with Swansea’s Verity Ockenden a further eleven seconds adrift in third place. Weightman, recently returned from warm weather training in South Africa, in preparation for her forthcoming Commonwealth Games appearance in Australia’s Gold Coast in April, was well satisfied with her run, and admitted being very much pushed all the way to the finish line by Judd, as she equalled her 2017 clocking. 132 athletes took part in the Women’s 3k event. |
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