The annual North East Masters Athletics Association Road Relays, held at Bedewell Park, Jarrow last Wednesday, proved to be a happy hunting ground once again for some of the veteran athletes from Morpeth Harriers, with the club picking up some four team and eight individual medals across the two races.
In the night’s first race, for Women and Men Over 65, evergreen Gavin Bayne led the club to a comprehensive victory in the category, his clocking of 12 minutes 5 seconds for the three kilometre course the fastest in the 65s, with David Nicholson (12:27, 2nd fastest) and Les Cavill (13:50) making up the winning team. The total time of 38:22 placed the team 4th overall in the race, which was won by Tyne Bridge Harriers O/45s, for whom Alison Dargie ran the evening’s fastest Race 1 time of 11:43, with Rachael Perowne (13:02) and Kathryn Stevenson (12:08) making up the rest of the team (36:53). South Shields’s 35s and 45s scrapped it out for 2nd and 3rd, with the older team 2nd (by one second) on the line. In the same race, Shuna Rank recorded the second fastest O/55 time of the evening (13:55) and also picked up a team Bronze along with team mates Margaret Macdonald (16:01) and Pam Woodcock (17:22), with Pam also winning the O/70 individual Gold. Spare a thought for poor Claire Calverley, running on her own in an incomplete O/45s (13:32) but determined to turn out all the same having organised the women. In Race 2, over the same distance but for all Men between the ages of 35 and 64, there was plenty of testosterone flying and not a few pointy elbows at the sharp end, with Sunderland, Gateshead and TBH all fighting at the front. In the end, perhaps unsurprisingly, Sunderland’s O/35s (29:07) won out ahead of TBH (30:01) and Gateshead (30:31), with Liam Taylor’s 9:34 fastest of the night. Morpeth’s O/35s were 14th in this most keenly contested category, with O/40s Anthony Jannetta (10:43) and Colin Archer (10:57) out first and O/50 Jason Dawson happy to make up the team on leg 3 (11:55). There was, however, more model success with the club’s Over 45s missing out on a team Gold by a margin of only 4 seconds to South Shields Harriers and having to settle for Silver when finishing 9th overall. New recruit to the club Andrew Ball had an excellent run out to record the evening’s second fastest O/45 time of 19:17 (also the club’s fastest of the night) with Lee Bennett (10:43, 4th fastest O/50) and John Butters (11:17) picking up their share of the O/45 team medals. There was also a team Silver for Morpeth’s O/55s, with Alistair Macdonald (12:00) and Rob Hancox (12:04) recording second and third fastest O/55 times, and Neil MacAnany the third fastest O/60 (11:49). A good evening’s racing as ever among fellow vets – well done to all. There were seven teams from the club amongst the over 150 in action at the popular Gordon Smith Relays at Wallsend on Wednesday evening.
As well as being both popular and keenly contested, it’s always a good one for spectators too, and this year was no exception with the two-mile route that uses much of the Terry O’ Gara course, but in reverse. Race 1 featured some 76 complete teams with the lead at the sharp end contested by North Shields Polytechnic, Tyne Bridge and last year’s winners, Elswick. Molly Pace came back in 11:42 at the end of leg 1, with early leaders Sunderland Strollers and Elswick, but NSP took the lead thanks to triathlete Steph MacLean-Dann on leg 2, with Elswick having moved into second place. A scorching run of 10:39 by a very much in form Charlotte Penfold for NSP on leg 3, the evening’s fastest female time and one better than that run by many in race 2, removed any prospect of those behind her getting anywhere near, although TBH’s long-striding Lucy Crookes managed to get the better of a rather out of sorts Justina Heslop for Elswick. Crookes’s 11:00 was the fastest Senior Female time, with TBH clocking 35:21 to NSP’s 34:03, and Elswick credited with the same 35: 21 in third. Morpeth’s 10th placed A team of Lizzie Rank (12:15), Linzi Quinn (13:09) and Gemma Floyd (12:24) did well to get into the top ten with a total clocking of 37:48. The club’s B team of Jane Kirby (13:37), Tayla Murdy (13:49) and Claire Calverley (14:21) came home in 41:47 for 26th. Shuna Rank, with both daughters turning out , Hannah for NSP, also ran a good first leg of 14: 24 in a sadly incomplete team. Some 76 teams finished in total. Special mention to Claire and Rachelle who moved heaven and earth to get two competitive teams out after an unfortunate string of injuries and late complications. The following Men’s race, with the same requirement as the Women’s of at least one Over 40 running, was as keenly contested with Morpeth’s Men unfortunately not quite able to retain the trophy they had held in 2018, 2019 and 2022. This time it was Sunderland and Gateshead the main challengers, with both clubs able to field a couple of nifty Veterans in Stephen Jackson and Conrad Thompson who had, fortuitously, just turned 40 – in Conrad’s case, on the day! Scott Armstrong brought Sunderland’s A in first on leg 1, his clocking of 9:32 just ahead of Chris Parr for Morpeth’s B (9:40) and Sam Hancox’s 9:47 for the A, with Lewis Liddle 4th for Gateshead (9:49). The lead for the Wearsiders was extended by a fine run by Stephen Jackson on leg 2 of 9:43, far and away the fastest vet time of the night, which gave a hefty lead of 48 seconds going in to leg 3. Behind, Conrad Thompson had got Gateshead into 2nd with Andrew Ball (10:36) moving Morpeth’s A in to 3rd. Despite the best efforts of Callum Johnson for Gateshead – whose 9:12 was the fastest time of the night – Joe Armstrong was more than able to hold his own for Sunderland, his 9:16 bringing the winners home in 28:31. Gateshead were 2nd in 29:15, with George Lowry recording 10:28 on leg 3 for Morpeth in 3rd (30:51). Morpeth’s B had a good run for 6th place (31:24) with Lee Bennett recording 10:56 and Andy Lawrence 10:48. There were a further three teams out for the Men, with the C team of Shaun Land (11:16), Anthony Jannetta (11:13) and Anthony Liddle (11:23) clocking 33:52 in 23rd. The D and E teams were nip and tuck, with Andriy Volkov (11:48), Richard Glennie (12:20) and Dave Swinburne (12:43) finishing in 36:51 in 44th, and Gavin Bayne (12:40), Jamie Johnson (12:18) and Rob Hancox (12:31) in 37:29 in 46th for the E. Some 91 complete teams finished. Three members of the club took on the hugely challenging Three Peaks Race over the summits of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough on Saturday, a course comprising some 23.3 miles and 1608 metres of ascent and descent in the Yorkshire Dales.
Matthew Briggs had an excellent run to come home 38th in a time of 3 hours 38 minutes and 7 seconds, with the race itself won in a time of 2:53:28 by Thomas Roach with Catherine Taylor 1st female finisher in 3:34:44. Running for Northumberland Fell Runners, Gary Mason was 428th in 5:08:50 and Steve Haswell 535th in 5:26:49. Good to see both back in demanding action. Elsewhere on Sunday, Phil Winkler was 20th in the Cardiff 5km Race for Victory on Sunday, clocking a new personal best of 14 minutes 53 seconds while representing the North of England in the Inter Area Match, while on Friday Lawrence McCourt was 10th in the Mid Cheshire 5k in a time of 14:31, also a pb. Lorna Macdonald (below) also had a great run at the Hartlepool Marina 5 mile race (one of the few 5 milers around these days, sadly), finishing in a time of 31:07. Anthony Janetta was 12th overall but 2nd Over 40 in 29:11, with Alistair Macdonald 42nd and 5th O/55 in 33:11. The race was won by Middlesbrough’s Max Creasey in 25:24. There was disappointing news, however, for all who had run in the previous weekend’s Terry O’Gara 5k at Wallsend with the announcement from organisers Wallsend Harriers that, following re-measurement, the course had been found to be 40 metres short, so all times – including a new course record for Alex Brown – would be scrapped. Following last year’s unfortunate accidents on the course, it certainly feels that this race seems to be jinxed. It was an evening of celebration for Morpeth Harriers at the presentation for the Start Fitness sponsored North East Harrier League 2022/2023 cross country season last Thursday, with the club collecting four team trophies along with four individual medals.
Oliver Calvert won Gold in the Under 15s Boys, and also led the U/15 Boys squad to the team trophy, with a winning margin of seven points ahead of North Shields Polytechnic Harriers and Tyne Bridge. Support came from Oliver Tomlinson, tied in second place with Alnwick Harrier Liam Mcdonough, who both collected individual Silvers, and team members Stephen Craske, Harry Armstrong, Dan Burrow and Ben Moll. The margin of victory was even greater for the club’s U/17 Boys, who won every fixture over the season to finish with a mere six-point total, 17 ahead of nearest rivals Birtley AC and Durham City. They were led home by Will De Vere Owen who, like Calvert, collected an individual Gold ahead of Gosforth’s Ethan Bond and Blackhill’s Tom Slane. Just missing out on individual medals, Morpeth’s Elliot Kelso, Bertie Marr and Joe Close were fourth, fifth and sixth overall. And although Morpeth missed out on the overall title in the Senior Women’s Division One by an agonising one point margin, both Cat Macdonald and Jane Hodgson, who have had outstanding seasons once again over the cross country, picked up individual Golds in the Senior and Veteran competitions. The final individual medal went to Emma Tomlinson, who picked up a good Bronze behind winner Kathryn Pye of Houghton AC and second placed Niamh Phillipson of Birtley in the U/13s. Meanwhile the club’s Senior Men picked up the Sisterson Cup for the second year running as overall winners in the Men’s Division One competition by a margin of eight points over Tyne Bridge Harriers and Gateshead. Final trophy of the night to collect was the Sherman Cup, won at Temple Park, South Shields in January, with contributions across the board from the club’s U/13, 15 and 17 Boys, and Senior and Veteran Men. Nine new personal best performances were achieved by athletes from Morpeth Harriers & AC from the 19 who turned out at the opening NEGP fixture, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on the evening of Wednesday April 26.
The conditions were a little chilly on the night, however, some athletes very soon warmed to the fact that they were very much back in Track and Field action following the long and hard gruelling exploits of a successful winter of Road and Cross Country. One of those athletes was Under 20 Man James Tilley, who chose not to get involved in the three-horse battle of wits between Birtley A pair Adrian Bailes and Chris Perkins, and Houghton’s Brandon Pye in the opening 1500m. He instead ran an excellent close race behind them, to finish fourth behind eventual winner Pye, who outwitted Perkins in the final strides, to finish in 3m53.72s. Tilley meanwhile was content to post a finishing time of 4m00.54s, which presented a new personal best. The Morpeth man had taken six seconds off his previous figures, to his obvious delight. Two places behind Tilley, was his Morpeth club colleague Connor Marshall, who was fractionally just outside his personal best with a time of 4m01.90s. Other Morpeth Harriers in the fastest 1500m were Peter Smallcombe (8th) 4m02.45s, which saw him take three seconds off his previous figures, Bertie Marr (9th) 4m02.67s, which was seven seconds faster than previous, and Elliot Kelso (13th) 4m07.09s, which was a new personal best by two seconds. No fewer than seven Morpeth Harriers lined up in a talent-filled field of 15 in the second fastest 1500m. They were led home by Joseph Close, who set a new personal best with his winning time of 4m06.36, taking ten and a half seconds off his previous figures for the distance. A few strides adrift of him, after being the early leader, was his Morpeth club colleague Liam Roche. Now running in the Under 20 Men’s section, Roche can feel well pleased that his second-place time of 4m07.77s, saw him take ten seconds off his previous figures. Other Morpeth performers in this heat were, Mark Banks (5th) 4m15.09s, Joe Dixon (6th) 4m17.93s, Ralph Robson (7th) 4m20.31s, Oliver Tomlinson (13th) 4m27.08s, and Elliot Mavir (14th) 4m27.66s, a new personal best here by four seconds. In the fourth fastest 1500m heat, Morpeth’s Caitlin Flanagan finished ninth, posting a time of 4m57.37s. Harry Armstrong, who is now running in the Under 17 age group, showed much improvement, when he finished third in the fifth heat, posting a finishing time of 4m55.66s, which was a new personal nest, taking six seconds off his previous figures. In the same heat, his Morpeth club colleague Emma Tomlinson, now running in the Under 15 age group, finished twelfth in 5m16.63s. Thomas Roche, younger brother of Liam, can feel well pleased that his finishing time of 5m19.33, earned him eighth place in Heat 6 of the series of 1500m, and saw him take a mammoth fifteen seconds off previous performances. He is now competing in the Under 15 Boys events. Rounding off the Morpeth 1500m performances was Under 13 Girl Zoe Tomlinson, younger sister of Emma and Ollie. Zoe finished thirteenth in the seventh heat, posting a first-time effort of 6m01.87s. In the 300m, Morpeth Veteran Woman Nisha Desai showed some very good early season form, when she finished third in the third fastest heat in 42.49s. Morpeth Under 15 Girl Abigail Kahn enjoyed her first NEGP experience, when finishing seventh in the final heat of the 150m in 21.80s, and she was second in her age group in the Long Jump, with her effort of 4.01m. |
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