Nineteen Championship medals were won by athletes from Morpeth Harriers
at the North Eastern Counties Track and Field meeting held at Gateshead's
International Stadium over Saturday and Sunday 10th/11th May.
Apart from the medals, five of which were Gold, seven were Silver
and seven were Bronze, a host of new personal bests were achieved
in what could only be described as perfect conditions,
with both days being blessed with dry, warm sunny weather.
On Saturday Laura Weightman was the first Morpeth athlete to
strike Gold in what could only be described as a fairly
competitive combined Under 20 and Senior Womens 800m.
The 2007 Under 17 Champion shared most of the early pace
with former Morpeth athlete Nisha Desai, now running for Trafford,
and with 200m remaining Weightman decided to take up the gauntlett
only to be chased all the way to the line by her fierce rival Stacey Smith,
formerly Tynedale, now with Gateshead.
Sensing danger from Smith, Weightman injected yet another surge
of power with 40m remaining and crossed the finish line in 2m08.20s,
knocking a whole three seconds off her previous figures for the distance.
By finishing in fourth place behind Desai, Morpeth's Natalie Young picked
up a Bronze medal by virtue of being third Under 20 in 2m23.5s.
Another Morpeth Gold medallist on the Saturday was Hannah Rank,
who easily won her very first Under 15 Girls 3000m in 11m15.1s.
Photo courtesy Angus Lumb Gateshead
Harriers
Hannah's training partner and clubmate Rachel Denton opted to
give the Under 15 Girls 800m a miss on the Saturday, however
turned up on the Sunday to put in an outstanding performance
to take Gold in the 1500m in 4m51.99s, and bettering
her previous figures by around three seconds.
Morpeth's Joe Robertshaw more than made up for his narrow
defeat in the Under 13 Boys 100m on the Saturday,
where his clocking of 13.7s was exactly the same as the winner
Matthew Routh of Middlesbrough, by breaking the Championship
record in the heats of the 200m on the Sunday with his time of 27.38s,
and then went on to win Gold in the Final in a slightly faster 27.21s
against the same Middlesbrough athlete, however the sweetness
was slightly taken away by the fact that the Wind Gauge had ruled
his time ineligible for ratification to a better figure.
Nevertheless Joe had worked hard for to retain his hold on the title that
he won in 2007, and more than deserved this particular victory alone.
Morpeth's fifth Gold of the weekend came on the Sunday
where Alan Richmond won the Under 20 Mens Hammer with a best of 34.53m.
This was Richmond's second medal of the weekend having taken Bronze
on the Saturday in the Discus with a little below par best of 29.12m.
Chris Sampson just lost out to New Marske's Dominic Shaw in
a hard fought Senior Mens 5000m, where he clocked 15m09.56s.
Clubmates Dan Samuels and Ross Floyd finished fourth and seventh
in respective times of 15m44.88s and 16m06.69s.
Deborah Oakley picked up a well deserved Silver medal
in the Under 17 Womens 3000m with a finishing time of 11m37.74s.
On Sunday Natalie Young added a Silver medal to the
Bronze medal she'd won on the Saturday when finishing
second in the Under 20 Womens 1500m in 4m51.41s.
Photo courtesy Angus Lumb Gateshead
Harriers
Also on Sunday Martyn Cairns secured Silver in the
Under 20 Mens 5000m where he clocked 17m45.08s.
Morpeth's other two Silver medals came in the Field events
with Rachel Moody taking second in the Under 17 Womens Javelin
on the Saturday with her best of 17.05m, and Claire Reid took
second in the Senior Womens Shot on the Sunday with her best of 10.56m.
Photo courtesy Angus Lumb Gateshead
Harriers
On Saturday Alistair Douglass secured a well earned Bronze medal in the
Under 17 Mens 1500m where he clocked a brand new lifetime best of 4m17.08s,
and on the Sunday he very nearly added a second Bronze
in the 3000m where he clocked an excellent 9m31.30s.
After securing a Bronze in the Senior Womens 200m
on Saturday with her finishing time of 26.55s,
Morpeth's Elaine Telford returned on Sunday to take
a second Bronze in the 100m in 13.07s.
Photo courtesy Angus Lumb Gateshead
Harriers
On Saturday Morpeth's Jonny Young found himself squeezed out
of the medals in the Senior Mens 1500m with his clocking of 4m02.52s,
however he made up for that on the Sunday by securing a Bronze in the 800m in 1m59.03s.
Morpeth's Jack Hepple finished third in the Under 15 Boys 400m in 68.45s.
One Morpeth athlete who performed superbly over the
two days was Jonny Nisbet who on Saturday won his heat of
the Under 15 Boys 1500m in a new personal best time of 4m45.74s,
and although he bettered that time again in the final,
just lost out for medals when he finished fifth.
Jonny returned on the Sunday to produce yet another personal best
in the heats of the 800m where his 2m18.69s saw him finish fourth
in his heat, to go through to the final as a fastest loser.
However 2m18.84s in the Final was just not quite good
enough to get him amongst the medals.
Photo courtesy Angus Lumb Gateshead
Harriers
Despite clocking excellent new personal bests of 4m19.23s
and 2m04.72s in the Under 17 Mens 1500m and 800m events,
Morpeth's Marcus Cram found himself outside the medals,
however as a first year in this age group there is certainly more to
come from the son of the former World Mile Record Holder.
Other excellent Morpeth performers other than medallists were
Shannon Henley who made it through to the finals of both the 100m
and 200m in the Under 13 Girls age group and finished fourth in the Long Jump,
Daniel Hedley who got through to the Final of the Under 17 Mens 200m,
Andrew Toothill who finished fourth in the Under 20 Mens Discus,
and Liam Brooks who just lost out on countback for
a Bronze medal in the Under 13 Boys High Jump.
The profile of the North Eastern Counties Championships certainly
reached a new high with a good deal of competition in Track events,
however there is still a good deal of work to be done
to ensure popularity within the Field events.
Certainly medal presentatations done in front of a watching
crowd added some spice to the occasion.
Many thanks must go to Gateshead Council
for their efforts in promoting the event.
Morpeths Ben Harrison finished fourth in the
Golden Ball 5k Road Race in Morecambe,
Lancashire on Sunday 11th May in a time of 16m17s,
which proved to be 59 seconds adrift of race winner
Eddie Simpson of Dallam Running Club.
Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes squad were badly hit by a
number of absentees when they finished fourth in their opening
Northern League Division 1 match at Monkton Stadium on Sunday 4th May.
Nevertheless Team Managers Tony Ward and Josie Goodfellow did their
level best to tactically place those who could turn out to the best advantage.
Despite the loss of athletes there were a number of
excellent performances across the three age groups.
In the Under 17 Womens section Rachel Moody claimed
excellent victories in the Long Jump (4.23m) and Shot (8.57m).
Stevie Goodfellow went alone in the Triple Jump
to gain maximum points with a best of 8.66m
and followed that up with an excellent second in the 200m (28.9s)
with Kathryn Lake taking second in the B race in 29.0s.
After a hard day at York the previous day competing for the Seniors,
Deborah Oakley competed in the 3000m to finish third in 11m32.3s,
then later finished third in the 1500m in 5m35.4s,
and Jessica Caldwell took the B race in 5m48.3s.
There were good performances to be seen in the
Under 15 age group with Rachel Denton, Hannah Rank
and Jonny Nisbet all capturing the spotlight.
Denton claimed a superb victory in the Girls 800m in 2m23.3s,
a new personal best, which saw her finish well clear of her nearest rival.
Ellen Welsh ran well to finish second in the B race in 3m05.3s
Morpeth claimed an excellent double victory in the Girls 1500m
with Hannah Rank taking the A race in 5m06.7s
and Miriam Inverarity took the B race in 5m50s.
Rank also finished second in the Shot with 5.92m.
There were excellent second places for Anna Matthews
in the 200m (28.8s) and Ismay Kitson in the Javelin (10.77m)
Jonny Nisbet and Tom McGhee combined well to claim an
excellent Morpeth double victory in the Boys 200m
with Nisbet taking the A race in 27.4s and McGhee the B race in 31.2s.
Nisbett also finished second in the 1500m (4m47.2s)
a new personal best by almost thirty seconds,
and McGhee finished second in the Long Jump with 4.15m.
Another highlight was Philip Caldwell's second in the 80m Hurdles with 18.1s.
In the Under 13 age group Joe Robertshaw's victories in the 100m (13.9s)
and 200m (27.9s) certainly caught the eye.
Added to that he was agonisingly 9cm short of making a reasonable claim
of a hat-trick of victories with his best Long Jump effort of 3.91m.
In the Girls events Adele Stewart and Eve Shashova's performances
were outstanding with a double victory being claimed in the 800m
with respective clockings of 2m51.1s and 2m58.9s.
Stewart also finished second in the High Jump with a best clearance of 1.10m
and Steph Purvis came second in the B String with 1.05m.
There were very satisfactory debuts for Ryan Dodds and Liam Brooks.
Dodds finished third in the 75m Hurdles (16.7s)
and Brooks also placed third in the 1500m in 5m30.9s.
FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st Harrogate 360pts,
2nd Lincoln Wellington 354pts,
3rd Chester Le Street 233pts,
4th Morpeth 195pts.
Huntington Stadium in York was the venue for Morpeth Harriers
first taste of Senior Men and Womens Northern League
Division 2 Track and Field action on Saturday 3rd May.
Despite a number of gaps in both sections, some good characteristic
performances saw them finish fourth of the six competing teams.
One of the pleasing major highlights from Morpeth's
point of view was to see debutant Ian Mawdesley
win the A race of the Mens 110m Hurdles in fine style in 18.7s,
with Team Captain John Thompson throwing in his all by taking
his place in the B race to finish second in 22.7s.
Mawdesley again played his part enormously by winning
the B race of the 400m Hurdles in 69.4s
to add to Ray Kirkup's fourth in the A race in 66.2s.
Chris Sampson ran well to beat City of York's Andy Hilton
to the finish line in the 3000m Steeplechase to win in 9m32.6s,
and David Swinburne finished second in the B race in 10m15.4s.
In the Mens Field events Angus Wood did well to finish second
in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.65m.
Paul Appleby threw 37.62m to finish third in the Javelin,
and John Thompson backed him up well to finish third
in the B event with 36.00m.
In the Womens events Laura Weightman landed a victory in the 800m
clocking 2m11.6s which was fractionally just adrift of her personal best.
Natalie Young backed her up well by taking second in the B race in 2m27.7s.
Weightman also did well when finishing third in the 400m in 60.3s
and Rachel Archer finished second in the B race with 64.1s.
Elaine Telford finished third in both the 100m (12.8s) and the 200m (26.6s)
Archer backed her up in the 200m when finishing fourth in the B race in 27.4s.
Aiveen Fox finished third in the 3000m in 11m29.2s
and Deborah Oakley finished second in the B race in 11m56.2s.
In the Womens Field events as usual it was Claire Reid
at the helm of Morpeth's points haul by finishing second
in the Discus (30.99m) and second in the Shot (10.07m)
FINAL MATCH SCORE
1st City of York 447pts,
2nd Gateshead Harriers 345pts,
3rd Middlesbrough (Mandale) 340pts,
4th Morpeth Harriers 286pts,
5th Durham City 269pts,
6th Scarborough 186pts.
A close and very exciting finish saw Morpeths Jonathan Taylor
representing Teeside University, snatch victory in the Mens 1500m
from Darlington's Lewis Moses representing Loughborough, at the
BUSA Track and Field Championships held at Bedford on Monday 5th May.
Jonathan Taylor clocked 3m45.61s, a new personal best,
with Lewis Moses also getting a new personal best of 3m45.72s.
Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman showed that she is now virtually
back to her sparkling best as she knocked a whole three seconds
off her personal best time in the 1500m at the first Start Fitness
North Eastern Athletics League meeting held at a rainswept
Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on Wednesday 30th April.
She certainly took every advantage when running as the only Female
against older Men and Boys, to cross the finish line in an excellent 4m23.4s.
Another good Morpeth performer on the night was Joe Robertshaw,
who won the Under 13 Boys 100m in 13.5s.
Other Morpeth performers on the night were
Katie Plant Under 15 Girls 75m Hurdles (16.0s) and 100m (14.5s)
Daniel Hedley (18.1s) Under 17 Mens 150m and (39.7s) 300m,
Claire Reid (10.54m) Senior Womens Shot and (16.75m) Hammer,
Martyn Cairns (4m35.4s) Under 20 Mens 1500m,
Deborah Oakley (5m49.1s) Under 17 Womens 1500m.
Morpeths Craig McBurney finished 27th in the
Bupa Great Edinburgh 10k on Sunday 4th May
in a time of 37m18s.
McBurney is just making a comeback to the sport
after service in the Armed Forces in Basra.
Morpeth Harrier Lewis Timmins finished second in the Mens 5000m
at The McDonnell Invitational Track and Field meeting held
at Fayetteville, Arkansas in America on April 19th.
Timmins time was 14m09.91s.
Unfortunately Paul Fairbrother has been forced to put his athletics
comeback on hold following an accident when Skiing off-piste in the Cairngorms.
He says he is going to be away from running for at least a year
after breaking his left leg and damaging numerous ligaments into the bargain.
However to show that he has not lost any of his humerous spirit,
or indeed admiration admiration and thought for his club he has
adorned his cast-brace in club colours as per the picture.
We all hope you are very well soon Paul.
Former Blyth Valley 10 mile winner Les Atkinson
was Morpeth Harriers first finisher at the
Blyth Valley Transped 10k Road Race on Sunday 27th April.
Les was tenth of 397 finishers in a time of 35m09s
and was first Over 50 Veteran Male finisher.
Nineteen seconds behind him in eleventh place was his clubmate Ross Floyd.
with Gordon Dixon finishing 19th in 36m46s,
Morpeth finished third in the Mens Team race
behind North Shields Poly and Elswick Harriers.
In the Womens Team race Morpeth Harriers finished as
seventh team being led home by Sue Calvert who finished
154th overall and was 25th Lady, 4th O/40 Female, and finished in 44m54s.
Further team support came from Pam Woodcock (35th Lady)
(2nd Over 55 Female) (193rd) 46m39s,
and Sue Smith (54th Lady) (11th Over 40 Lady) (270th) 50m23s.
Other Morpeth Harriers results were as follows,
Michael Winter (39th) 38m37s,
Archie Jenkins (40th) (1st O/55) 38m39s,
Richard Driscoll (50th) (2nd O/55) 39m13s,
Graeme Leathard (54th) (6th O/40) 39m26s,
Jim Alder (59th) (11th O/45) 40m07s,
Michael McKean (79th) (12th O/40) 41m07s,
Nick Armstrong (89th) (13th O/40) 41m39s,
Simon Robson (92nd) 41m46s,
David Gray (112th) (3rd O/60) 42m35s,
Alan Hyde (115th) (17th O/40) 42m47s,
Ricky Davidson (148th) 44m22s,
Trevor Robinson (168th) (22nd O/40) 45m34s,
Stephen McDonald (184th) (26th O45) 46m19s,
Bernie Cordes (186th) (1st O/70) 46m22s,
Colin Cecil (241st) (39thO/40) 48m50s
Jane Blackett (330th) (8th O/45 Lady) 55m05s
Suzanne Milward (362nd) (8th O/50 Lady) 57m23s.
A change of rules thwarted Morpeth Harriers in their efforts
to pull a full squad together for their challenge at the
National 12 Stage Road Relays held at Sutton Park,
Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham on Saturday 26th April.
The organisers informed the club three weeks ago that they would
have to cut back their intended entry of 36 runners to 24 which put
them in a very tricky position with most of the clubs top runners rendered
unavailable because of injuries and other commitments.
This left them unable to call upon some of their regular unsung
road runners who would have at least guaranteed they
would once again finish in the competition,
although they would be placed well outside of medal placing.
Instead, Team Captain David Swinburne was left with only seven runners
including himself to make the journey to the Midlands.
First Leg runner Chris Sampson came home in 25th place in 27m51s.
Jonathan Taylor on second leg carved through the opposition in front
of him to climb up to an excellent twelfth, clocking
an equally excellent eighth fastest Short Stage time of 14m17s.
Ben Harrison on third leg slipped back to 20th with 28m56s,
a position that Jonny Young held throughout his fourth stage effort of 15m05s.
Next two legs brought out the Veteran talents of Phil Walker,
making his National 12 Stage debut for Morpeth, and
Paul Waterston who clocked 30m22s and 16m52s finishing
firstly in 23rd and then 24th places.
Finally David Swinburne signed off Morpeth's brave attempt at respectability
by finishing in 22nd place clocking an individual Long Stage seventh leg in 29m14s.
Ian Hudspith's dreams of making it to the Olympics came
to a sad and dramatic end in Hamburg on Sunday 27th April,
when he was forced to pull out having completed 18 of the 26 miles
of the only Marathon left available to him to gain qualification.
Having being forced out of London with illness the 36yr old had every
reason to believe he was in with a chance at halfway in Sunday's event,
however he began to struggle in the second half of the event
leading to him eventually stepping off the road.
Obviously he was bitterly disappointed, saying that it just wasn't to be,
he still wasn't alright after the illness and shouldn't have run,
but he felt that being his last chance, he had to give it a go.
It was upsetting, but he is resolved that he cannot do anything about it,
there was just nothing there when it mattered.
Adrian Barnes of Morpeth Harriers continued his long
and distinguished Orienteering experience by taking the
British Over 55 Mens Short Course Championship
in Culbin Forest, near Inverness at the weekend, 19th/20th April.
Ben Harrison was Morpeth Harriers leading finisher in the
Tees Valley Leisure sponsored Redcar Half Marathon
on Sunday 20th April.
Harrison made the long journey from Kirkby Lonsdale
in Cumbria to finish twelfth in 73m59s.
Other good Morpeth performances
came from Mike Winter (68th) 85m44s,
Ian Corner (120th) 89m25s
and Alan Hyde (147th) 91m08s.
Morpeth Harrier Phil Walker travelled to Leeds on Sunday 20th April
and finished 7th in the Rothwell 10k Road race in a time of 33m41s.
That placing also saw him finish second in the Over 40 Veteran Mens section.
Sarah Wilkes of Morpeth Harriers began her Track and Field season
with great determination and success when she competed in
Round 1 of 5 Rounds in the Gateshead Harriers Young Athletes
meetings at Gateshead International Stadium on Sunday 20th April.
She cleared 3.40m to win the Under 12's Long Jump,
she won her heat in the 60m in 9.8s
and finished third in the final in 9.6s.
Sarah went on to finish 4th in the 600m in 2m17s,
and 4th in the Javelin with 6.5m.
All of these efforts gave her a total of 14 Grand Prix points
placing her second overall after one round.
Gateshead Harriers also held their Medal Track Meeting
alongside the Young Athletes meeting,
and several Morpeth Harriers produced prominent performances.
Daniel Hedley finished fifth in the Under 17 Mens 100m
in 12.5s and fourth in the 200m in 25.1s.
Elaine Telford finished second in the Senior Womens 100m in 13.3s.
Rachel Denton had an excellent run of 2m26.18s
to finish second in the Under 15 Girls 800m.
Natalie Young finished third in the Junior Womens 1500m in 4m55.73s.
Rachel Archer finished fifth in the Senior Womens 200m in 27.9s.
Entries are now being taken for a brand new event
being promoted by Morpeth Harriers.
The Winters Gibbet 10k is being held at Elsdon near Otterburn
on Saturday 24th May 2008 at 2.50pm.
There is a race entry limit of 70 because of the narrowness
of the scenic country roads that form the accurately measured course.
The final 2.5 mile of the course is down the Gibbet Hill
and past the famous miserable landmark that forms the spot
where murderer William Winter was ceremoniously hung in chains in 1791.
Entry fees include the Bus to take all runners to the start from
the Race Headquarters at the Bird in Bush Pub in Elsdon,
the Bus will leave on the day at 2.30pm prompt.
Entry Fees are £10.00 Athletics Club Members
and £12.00 Unattached Runners.
Cheques are payable to Morpeth Harriers & AC
and should be sent to
Haggar the Race Secretary,
39, Kingswell
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2TY.
Enquiries can be made on
Tel No 07710438426.
SUNDAY 18TH MAY
This Sunday sees Morpeth Harriers Young Athletes
squad in action in their second round National Track and Field
match at Dorothy Hyman Stadium in Cudworth in Yorkshire.
They compete against Barnsley,
Bingley and Middlesbrough (Mandale)
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