 The triumphant U17 men with Tanni Grey-Thompson Morpeth’s Senior Men won the Northern Athletics Road Relays Championships after four hours of racing at Redcar on Saturday, with their victory matched by that of the club’s Under 17s earlier, and also allied to a spirited top-20 performance from the Senior Women.
Held in largely unwelcoming and chilly conditions dominated by light rain and a northerly wind and run over closed roads at the sea front to the south of the town, the Men’s race includes some four legs of 9.5 kilometres and eight of 5k, with the shorter Women’s six stage of two long legs and four short unfolding at the same time. Yorkshire clubs were soon to the fore in the Men’s event, with early leaders Hallamshire Harriers and favourites Leeds City AC establishing a small margin at the front of the race, later to be joined by the North West’s Salford Harriers and Sale Harriers after leg 3. A strong start for Morpeth saw Finn Brodie on leg 1 come home in 4th place in 29:06, in fact the 6th fastest long leg time of the day. George Lowry stepped up on leg 2, his 15:32 moving the club up one place for the first short leg and he passed on to Sam Hancox on a long leg 3. His clocking of 29:42 saw the club drop a couple of places but remain firmly still in the reckoning. Ali Douglas’s 16:06 on leg 4 moved the club up one place with Hallamshire and Leeds still at the front. All changed on leg 5 however, when a flying Carl Avery took the race by the scruff of the neck as he turned a 57 second deficit into a lead of over a minute, a lead which the club was never, thereafter, to lose. Avery’s time of 28 minutes 41 seconds was the day’s second fastest time for the long leg of 9.5 kms, only later bettered by Linton Taylor of Leeds with his 28:28 on leg 7. In his first outing in a Morpeth vest on leg 6, new recruit Lawrence McCourt extended the lead to nearly a minute with a strong run and a time of 15:17, 10th fastest of the day. The lead was increased on the day’s last long leg by Alex Brown on leg 7 with 29:20, and then even further with a very speedy James Young on leg 8, whose 14:55 for the 5k distance was the day’s second fastest time. As the event moved into the later stages, now all short 5k legs, the race was now Morpeth’s to lose, but, despite the best efforts of Leeds and Hallamshire, who had kept some of their fastest runners back, the club was never seriously challenged. Connor Marshall clocked 15:39 on leg 10, Matty Briggs 15:54 on leg 11 and Phil Winkler, recording the 8th fastest short leg time of the day, 15:10, saw the title won in an overall time of 4 hours and 48 seconds. This was the ninth time the club have managed to win the Northern title, but the first since 2011, it was one that certainly gave watching club president Jim Alder, MBE and team captain Dave Swinburne as much pleasure as the first. Hallamshire (4:02:11) overtook Leeds (4:02:32) for second place with the much fancied West Yorkshire club having to settle for third. As expected on home turf, North East clubs were well to the fore overall, with Sunderland Harriers making the top ten in 8th place (4:14:04), Gateshead 13th in 4:22:30) and TBH 19th in 4:32:11. Morpeth’s Senior Women were also in competition, fielding a team in the Women’s six-stage relay, held over the same course as the Men with two long and four shorter legs. Morag Stead led out on the first, long leg, clocking 37:02 for 16th place, and Lizzie Rank took the first short leg, recording 20:13 for 17th with Claire Calverley’s 22:20 seeing the team in 20th at the half way point. Lorna Macdonald took the second long leg, and her 32:53 saw the team move up to 17th. The last two legs were short legs, with Tayla Murdy running 22:29 for 17th and Kirsty Burville bringing the team home with 20:56 and a highly respectable final placing of 18th (2:40:53). In a race won by Blackburn Harriers in a time of 2:20:52, Team GB Olympian Jess Warner Judd ran the day’s fastest time of 30:51, her run surely one of the highlights of the day as she moved her team from 7th up to 2nd on the second long leg. An exciting last leg saw Blackburn pip Salford Harriers and AC into 2nd (2:21:07) and early leaders Leeds City AC into 3rd (2:21:15). NSP were first local club to finish, coming home in 7th, with Gateshead Harriers in 20th and Sunderland Harriers 24th (TBH didn’t run). The day’s first events were for the U/15 and U/17 Boys and Girls. Run as races and not relays, Will De Vere Owen had got things off to the best possible start for the club, winning in a time of 15:27, some eleven seconds ahead of nearest rival Jonson Hughes of Rotherham Harriers. With Liam Roche also medaling in third (15:42), Elliot Kelso in fourth (15:48), Ethan Phillips fifth (15:53), Bertie Marr seventh (15:57), Joe Close ninth (16:17) and Elliot Mavir twenty sixth (18:46), it was very much a Morpeth procession as the club took both A team and B team medals, which they were then delighted to receive from a watching local resident, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, President of host club New Marske Harriers. In the U/15s race, Oli Tomlinson was 12th in 17:19 and Daniel Scott 32nd in 20:32, though there wasn’t sadly a third team counter. In the U/15 and 17 Girls race, Megan Potrac and Charlotte Marshall both ran, with Megan 16th in 22:23 and Charlotte 17th in 23:09. Well done to all who took part and represented the club with such distinction. Comments are closed.
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