 Start Fitness North Eastern Grand Prix (4) Eight athletes from Morpeth Harrier were in action at the fourth Start Fitness sponsored North Eastern Grand Prix meeting, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium, on the evening of Wednesday 10th July 2019. Only two of those eight athletes produced personal best performances on the night, and they just happened to be sibling brothers Ryan and Dylan Davies, both of whom have been in fine form of late, and respectively progressing under the ever watchful eye of their coach Mike Bateman, and his team of assistants at the club, and being also respectively as competitive as each other, they are indeed not shy when it comes to toughing it out with the best. Ryan, for his part, made his mark in the Junior Graded 1500m, finishing as fourth fastest Under 15 Boy, posting a new personal best finishing time of 4m32.17s, taking a whole nine seconds off his previous figures. Four places behind Ryan, was his club colleague Bertie Marr, who by degree is not quite at his best, however he still managed to emerge as eighth fastest Under 15 Boy, posting a time of 4m46.17s. The older Davies, Dylan, finished an overall twelfth in a later run 20 strong Graded 3000m event, also producing personal best figures of 9m49.54s, taking fractionally over a second off his previous figures, which certainly delighted the Under 17 athlete. Another Morpeth Harrier in action in the 3000m was Under 20 Woman Gracie Hufton, who posted a finishing time of 11m45.64s. Morpeth had three athletes in action in the Senior Graded 800m event. Alistair Douglass was the fastest of these, finishing fifth in the fastest of four heats, posting a time of 1m56.09s. Five places behind him was club colleague Kieran Hedley, who posted a time of 2m02.44s. The third Morpeth Harrier in action here was Tayla Murdy, who posted a time of 2m42.49s in the slowest of the four races. Morpeth’s only Field eventer on the night was regular Under 15 Girl 800m runner Abi Leiper, who wax overall fifth in the Graded Under 13/Under 15 Long Jump, getting an on the night best out of herself of 4.33m, and led her particular age group in the competition. Trafford Open Grand Prix Meeting Morpeth Harrier George Lowry travelled across to Stretford in Manchester on the evening of Tuesday 9th July 2019 and was pleased to record a new personal best of 8m34.23s, when finishing second in a highly competitive 3000m A Race at the Trafford Open Grand Prix Meeting. He lost out on individual victory by around five seconds to Leigh’s William Rawson, who also produced new figures. Lowry took around two seconds off his previous figures, that he had achieved at the same venue in June. Great North 10k Matthew Boyle was Morpeth’s first finisher in the Great North 10k on Sunday 7th July 2019, with a time of 38m 1s and a 32nd placing. Kate Gaffing was 826th in 49m 32s. The race was won by James Mckenzie in 33m 11s with Ashley Gibson 1st woman home in 35m 40s. Chevy Chase Fell Race Emma Holt marked a return to competitive action after a number of difficult injury-filled months when finishing 17th overall and first woman home in the annual Chevy Chase fell run on Saturday 6th July 2019. In a race won Lee Roe of NFRA in just over 3 hours, she finished with a good time of 3 hours 31 minutes 43 seconds and was well up the field. Behind her, Steve Haswell had a good run to come in 23rd in 3 h 35m although in a tough category he was only 7th Over 50. Jane Briggs and Mike Steven, however, were both 2nd in their O/50 and O/60 cats finishing together in 4:25:34. Jill Sandeman finished in 5:58:37 and was 12th O/40.  Sam Hancox in action at the 2019 Bridges of the Tyne race Bridges of the Tyne Race
Sam Hancox was second in the Bridges of the Tyne race hosted by Tyne Bridge Harriers and run on a balmy Tuesday evening (2nd July 2019. In a race he had previously won last year, he narrowly lost out to Jarlath McKenna of Bristol and West AC by a margin of seconds with a time of 25 minutes and 9 seconds for the 5 mile course. He had the consolation, however, of finishing as North East Champion for the distance, with McKenna not counting as representing a club from outside the area. There was a medal performance also from Rachelle Falloon, third woman in 30m 22s behind Danielle Smythe of Heaton Harriers and Georgia Campbell who both clocked 29m 48s. Jason Dawson was 58th and 3rd O/45 in 30m 26s. Other Morpeth performances included: Shaun Land, 69th in 31m 04s; Jamie Johnson, 70th in 31m 08s; Helen King and Gemma Floyd, 2nd and 3rd Over 40s respectively in 31m 42s and 32m 23s and Claire Calverley, 9th O/40 in 37m 19s. North of England Masters Track and Field Championships Gavin Bayne had an early start when he travelled down to the city of Hull on the last weekend in June for the North of England Masters Track and Field Championships. His journey was worth it, however, as, now a year older and at the top end of his category, he still retained his Over 60 1500m title with a super run in a time of 5m 17s. ‘I went out hard and tried to just keep it going, despite the hamstring niggle – my best run of the year,’ he later commented, his elation later tempered by the ongoing chaos at NUFC…. Other News...................... There were a couple of half-marathon victories by Morpeth Harriers towards the end of June. Despite managing to get himself lost when in the lead after only a few miles, Jordan Scott managed to re-find the route of the Penshaw Hill race (part of the ‘Trail Outlaws’ series) to win in a time of 1 hour 30 minutes and 15 seconds. No such problems for Andy Hebden, now an Over 40, as he won the hilly Coquet Valley half marathon out of Rothbury in a time of 1:23:40. Comments are closed.
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