A warm and breezy Sunday morning saw the annual running of the Alnwick Harriers-organised Northumberland Coastal Run, with over 350 runners completing the course, surely one of the most scenic in the country, along the coast from Beadnell to Alnmouth. And there were victories for the club in both Men’s and Women’s races, with Andrew Lawrence, in his first ever run over the course, the overall winner in a time of 1 hour 21 minutes 3 seconds for the 14-mile course. Lawrence had been helped for much of the way by a previous race winner, club companion Ian Harding, who took the race out to well over half way and finished 2nd in 1:22:22, with a visitor from South Yorkshire, Thomas Shaw of Worksop Harriers, 3rd in 1:23:28. In a race she has very much made her own, and finishing this year 10th overall in a time of 1:32:48, Jane Hodgson was once again 1st Female, completing yet another victory to add to a remarkable list that goes all the way back to 2017 – some five victories in total, a record one imagines that is unlikely to be challenged in the foreseeable future. Claremont Road Runner Sarah Kerr was 2nd Female in 1:38:04 and Heaton Harrier Ellie Reed 3rd in 1:39:40. There was further success for Morpeth with Tayla Douglass 5th Female in 1:48:19, Anna Wright 2nd Over 40 in 1:48:47 and training companion Jane Kirby likewise 2nd O/50 in 1:53:18. Meanwhile evergreen veteran Gavin Bayne, who will be travelling to the World Masters Championships in Gothenburg in August, warmed up by coming home 27th overall but 1st O/65 in 1:41:27. (There was further good news for Gavin the following week with news he’d been selected for England in the 2025 International Representative Masters in 2025.) John Clark was the club’s final finisher, sneaking in under two hours (1:59:32) in 113th place. Numbers across the event seemed markedly down, however, with places still available the week before the race – a big change from the days when it was a rapid sell-out, although spiralling costs have probably put some people off, one imagines. For full results and more pictures visit the Alnwick Harriers website. Andrew Lawrence crosses the finishing line 49th Snowdon Race The previous day saw the challenging 49th Snowdon Race, the Castell Howell International Ras Yr Wyddfa taking runners all the way from Llanberis to the summit of the highest mountain in Wales and back in an event the organisers rightly describe as ‘one of Europe’s toughest endurance challenges.’ Not to be deterred, there were some 461 finishers which included many of the best hill runners from across the Home Counties with a visiting team from Italy also. Morpeth’s Macs were once again prominent, with Catriona picking up another Scotland vest and completing the race in 1 hour 26 minutes 54 seconds as Scotland’s 2nd counter behind fastest Female back, teammate Naomi Lang (1:15:48). Meanwhile Alistair had a remarkable run to finish ahead of everyone in his age category as 1st O/60 in 1:38:36 and 123rd overall. Not to miss out on the family outing, a determined Margaret also completed in 2:43:09. Fastest time of the day was by Joe Steward representing England, an extraordinary 1 hour 5 minutes and 41 seconds – can you even get the train up and down that fast? Wanda Diamond League, London
Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard were both involved in Diamond League action in London at the weekend, taking part in the elite 3000 metre Men’s race. Won by Swiss Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu in 7:27:68, Scott was first back in 16th, finishing in a new pb of 7:42:78, which is also a Morpeth club record for the distance. Rory was 19th in 7:56:52, also a pb.
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Veteran Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson won the Over 50 Men’s 100m title at the Scottish Outdoor Championships in Dundee.
Hodgson clocked a time of 11.86s, which although was a little adrift of his actual personal best of 11.5s, was still enough to win him another prized Gold Medal for his efforts. He is expecting to compete in the World Masters Championships in late August in Gothenburg, Sweden. Morpeth's senior Track and Field squad rounded off their first NESDL season by finishing third in their final Division 1 fixture, held at Shildon 2000 Stadium on Sunday 14 July.
Considering that the club had only a total of 19 athletes to call upon for the match, it was a pleasant result to report in the end, largely due to the fact, that apart from division winners Darlington, and second-placed Gateshead, other clubs close in contention also had weaker squads on the day. It also meant that Morpeth managed to finish fourth overall for the season out of six competing teams, with Teesside club New Marske facing the drop into Division 2 for the 2025 season. There were wins for Ellis Hetherington and James Tilley in the A races of the Men’s 1500m and 3000m respectively in times of 3m57.82s, and 8m54.26s, perhaps not as fast as expected, however the very wet conditions obviously played their part in affairs. As a bonus, there were also B race victories respectively by George Lowry (4m01.80s), and Josh Fiddaman (8m59.91s). Josh put in an excellent day’s work by also producing an additional 4m24.88s in the 1500m, and also finished second in the 400m in 52.6s. Newcomer Tiago Soares finished sixth in the B race of his first ever 400m in 71.3s. Under 20 athlete Elliot Mavir of Morpeth finished second in the Men’s 800m in 2m03.30s. Morpeth had three athletes engage themselves with sprint duties for the day. Under 20 athlete Harry Scott finished third in the A race of the 100m, posting a time, and on his Senior debut, Under 17 athlete, Harrison Scott (no relation), finished second in the B race, with his time of 11.7s. Phil Pitt also wore the Morpeth vest in the 100m, posting a time of 12.21s. In the later run 200m, it was Harrison who was the A race scorer, placing third in 23.4s, and Harry was second in the B race in 23.6s. Meanwhile, additional athlete Phil Pitt clocked 25.35s in his 200m. Morpeth Men’s 4 x 100m Relay squad finished third in 49.0s. Three Morpeth Men took part in Field Events. Phil Pitt putted 7.13m in the A String Shot for fifth place. Pitt also threw 12.2m in the A String Javelin for sixth place, and Tiago Soares threw 11.6m, for sixth place in the B String. In the Long Jump, Under 17 athlete Harrison Scott produced a lifetime best of 5.01m for third place in the A String, and Tiago Soares finished fourth in the B String with 3.62m. The Women’s performances certainly enhanced the whole result for the club, with them managing no less than four A String wins, and two relay victories, with also a few B String wins in addition. Nisha Desai, fresh from her recent outing at the UK Championships, won the 400m A Race in 59.3s, and Poppy Buck finished second in the B Race in 67.2s. Buck had her own moment of glory when she very clearly took the 800m A race in 2m26.84s. Holly Lawrence finished second in the 1500m A Race in 4m56.25s. In the Women’s sprint events, Freya Caygill finished second in the 100m A Race in 12.8s, and Mia Belton took the B Race in 12.9s. Caygill also finished second in the 200m A Race in 26.6s, and Belton finished second in the B Race in 26.7s. An additional Morpeth performer in the 100m and 200m events was Ellie Wickens, who posted times of 13.85s and 28.35s, respectively. Morpeth Women were dominant in both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m Relays, winning in respective times of 52.7s, and 4m26.39s. Charlotte Earl produced excellent wins in both the women’s Long Jump and Triple Jump events, producing respective bests of 4.84m and 11.01m. A returning Abbie Ross also won both respective B String competitions with 4.45m, and 9.39m. In the throw’s events, again Claire Reid was the workhorse for Morpeth Harriers. She finished third in the A String Shot Putt, producing a best of 8.31m. Vina Desai finished fifth in the B String with 4.73m. Reid and Desai also teamed up in the Women’s Hammer and Discus events. In the Hammer, Reid finished fifth in the A String with 20.8m, and Desai managed a best of 15.1m for third in the B String. Reid finished fourth in the Women’s Discus A String with 23.40m, and Desai finished sixth in the B String with a best of 11.6m. In the Women’s Javelin, Nisha Desai threw 19.33m for fourth place in the A String, and Reid backed her up well in the B String competition, finishing fourth with 14.12m. Many thanks to all of the Morpeth officials who turned out on the worst of days, in the worst of conditions, in addition to their efforts season long, and to all of the athletes who competed over the four matches throughout the season for the club, we could not have done without your continued support throughout. MATCH RESULT 1st Darlington 436pts, 2nd Gateshead 368pts, 3rd Morpeth 308pts, 4th Blaydon/Elswick 278pts, 5th Wallsend/Blyth 277pts, 6th New Marske 242pts. FINAL LEAGUE TABLES (Total Match Points over 4 Matches in brackets) 1st Darlington 24pts (1717) 2nd Gateshead 17pts (1451.5), 3rd Blaydon/Elswick 14pts (1183), 4th Morpeth 12.5pts (1283.5), 5th Wallsend/Blyth 11.5pts (1243), 6th New Marske 5pts (995). Many of the North East’s leading runners descended on the Silksworth Sports Village in Sunderland on Thursday night for the annual Sunderland Harriers 5 kilometre race, which this year, somewhat confusingly, also incorporated the Northern, North East AA and NEMAA championships.
Split into combined Women’s/ Men Over 50 and Senior/ Men Over 40 races, with a preliminary Junior two mile race, Morpeth Harriers were well represented, with 12 runners lining up in the first of the evening’s 5k fixtures. Won by a flying Stacey Smith of North Shields Polytechnic Harriers in an impressive time of 16 minutes 29 seconds, leading Morpeth veteran Morag Stead was first back for the club, 14th overall but the first Over 50 back in a time of 18:12, and on a productive night collected gold medals in the Northern, North East Championships and NEMAA Championships. She was followed home by club colleagues Holly Lawrence, 21st and 9th Senior Female, in 18:33 and training companion Poppy Buck, 23rd and 11th in 18:43, both in their debut runs over the course. Also medalling for NEMAA were evergreen Over 70 Pamela Woodcock, who won her category in a time of 27:49, and O/65 Dave Nicholson who was 2nd in his category in 20:54. Jason Dawson was the club’s first O/50 home, 29th in 18:52, with Elvet Strider Lindsay McEwan recording the fastest O/50 time of the night of 17:00. Sophie Ward had a strong run to come home 94th in 21:59, Laura McLean 101st in 22:18, Helen Chaplin 144th in 25:53 and Sarah Henry 145th in 25:59, with their coach Andrew Dippie 100th in 22:16. There were just over 200 finishers in the night’s following elite race, with no less than 11 blue and white vests on the start line. This time the race was won by young Houghton Harrier Chris Coulson in an impressive time of 14:26, with Morpeth’s Finn Brodie, some 11 seconds behind, collecting NECAA and Northern Athletics Silvers, and visiting runner Edward Leech, of Forest of Dean AC, 3rd (14:44). Peter Smallcombe was 4th for the club in 14:51, but did have the distinction of picking up a Northern Athletics Bronze medal, with Leech ineligible. Three more Morpeth athletes made the top ten, with George Lowry 5th in 14:55, Connor Marshall 8th in 15:02 and Will Cork 10th in 15:03. Young Elliot Kelso, in his first race with the Seniors, was 15th in 15:26, with Morpeth inevitably picking up the Men’s team award. Visting Gala Harrier Darrell Hastie recorded the fastest Over 40 time of the evening of 15:01. Rob Balmbra was 32nd in 15:59 (and got the drop on Jordan Scott to boot), Bertie Marrone place behind in 16:01, Andrew Lawrence 44th in 16:08, Dave Stabler 97th in 17:21 and Shaun Land 107th in 17:28. Results Sunday saw the first running of an event new to the region, the Newcastle Half Marathon and 10k, which were organised by the Run Through organisation, who had also been responsible for June’s Morpeth 10k.
With a start and finish at Kingston Park, home of Newcastle Falcons, and a route taking in closed roads around Newcastle Airport and Dinnington, the Half Marathon was won by Heaton Harrier David Young in a time of 1 hour 11 minutes 26 seconds with Lindsey Wellburn first female home in 1:27:22. Morpeth’s Lizzie Rank was 3rd Woman in the Half Marathon in 1:32:48, with Anna Wright, who had clearly got the previous weekend’s Chevy Chase out of her legs, 1st O/40 in 1:36:00. Sophie Ward was 9th Senior Female in 1:44:49. Jake Parmley was 50th in 1:31:31 and Mike Winter was 73rd and 4th O/50 in 1:36:37. The 10k was won by visiting Highgate Harrier Seya Taha Ghafari in a time of 31:54 with Nicole Rich 1st Woman in 38:40. Results |
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