The Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships returned to the North East for the first time in a number of years on a blustery Saturday afternoon, with athletes from across the Pennines and Yorkshire joining those from the North East on the rolling grassland of Sedgefield East Park.
And a high standard of competition saw Morpeth Harriers win one team Gold and one individual Silver medal, with their Senior Men in addition narrowly missing out on a medal. The team Gold came in the Junior Under 20s Men’s race over 8.1 kilometres. Won by Gateshead Harrier Josh Blevins in a time of 26 minutes 19 seconds, Will De Vere Owen led the Morpeth contingent home, finishing just outside the individual medals in 4th with a time of 27:06. Joe Dixon was not far behind, 7th in 27:31, and with Bertie Marr making a top 20 finish (28:44), and James Tilley fighting off a bout of flu to battle through to 34th in 29:49, the team count of a miserly 31 points placed the club in first place and well ahead of nearest rivals from Lancashire and Yorkshire, Rossendale and Rotherham - and this with most of the team still at the bottom of the age category. The outstanding individual Silver came from young Ewan Line in the Under 13 Boys race over 2.9 kms, where he placed 2nd to Middlesborough AC athlete Thomas McCartie (10:10) in a time of 10:26. Line has been in fine form over the cross country this Winter and the medal is just reward for the hard work he has put in and the disappointments he has also overcome, for instance being misdirected when leading in the North Easterns in December. Jack Dhawar was 96th (13:06), although it was a disappointment that what has been a strong squad all season were unable to close a team, with Sheffield’s Hallamshire Harriers taking the team prize. Final race of the day saw the Senior Men take on a 12.1k course (some 7.5 miles) over three laps, with most of the top Northern clubs fielding strong squads. A field of over 400 were led home by Gateshead’s Calum Johnson, who looked in imperious form after establishing an early lead, finishing in a remarkable time of 37:55, some thirty seconds ahead of closest rivals Angus McMillan of Hallamshire (38:25) and Matthew Ramsden of Blackburn (38:53). They were chased every inch of the way, however, by Carl Avery, a Silver medallist last year at Blackburn, who always tends to run well in these championships. Finishing just outside the medals in 4th (39:16), Carl can take consolation from the fact that 3rd place finisher Ramsden had actually won the U/20 title last year, and he was giving him over fifteen years! Avery was the first of some 12 Morpeth finishers, with Leeds-based Phil Winkler having one of the runs of the day for the club when finishing 15th (40:23) next home. The team count of six was made up by Alex Brown, 39th (41:47), Connor Marshall, 42nd (41:49), Lawrence McCourt, 56th (43:06) and Andrew Lawrence, 69th (43:35), with Rob Balmbra, 74th (44:00), Alex Cunningham, 76th (44:02) and Adam Pratt, 96th (45:03) all making the top hundred. Lee Cuthbertson looked strong when finishing 197th in 49:33, and veterans Richard Glennie (258, 52:59) and Andrew Dippie (404, 1:04:01) completed their first Northerns (Andrew having now run Southern, Midlands and now Northern Championships in his running career). Leeds City AC were perhaps unsurprisingly winners of the team prize, with Salford Harriers 2nd on 107, Hallamshire 3rd on 119, and Morpeth in 4th on 225, although having at least the consolation of being top team from the North East, ahead of nearest rivals Sunderland Harriers (7th) and Gateshead Harriers (10th). Once again the Macdonald sisters led the Morpeth effort in the day’s penultimate race, the Senior Women’s over 8.1 kms, with Catriona Macdonald 24th in 31:46, and sisters Lorna 70th (35:51) and an injured Lindsey 133rd (40:57). Leeds City AC’s squad trounced the opposition when finishing with a count of only 28 points, and Hallamshire’s Lauren McNeil took the individual title in 28:35. Durham City were 7th, Elswick 9th and NSP 10th, with no less than ten North East clubs in total closing teams, but with no fourth runner, Morpeth were disappointingly unable to close a team – which would almost certainly have been near at least a top ten finish. Earlier in the day the club’s Under 13 Girls had performed well to finish in 8th place, with Faye Heatley first back in 41st, Lucy Raper 55th, Zoe Tomlinson 59th and Anna Archibald 96th. Leeds City were individual and team winners. Elliot Kelso just missed out on a top ten finish in the 5.7 k U/17 Men’s race, coming in 11th in 18:44 with Joe Close 41st in 20:16. There were three finishers in the 3.8k U/15 Girls race, with Emma Tomlinson 61st , Molly Roche not far behind in 70th and Charlotte Marshall 114th. Finally, Ben Moll flew a lone flag for the club in the U/15 Boys, finishing in 45th place. Well done to all who turned out and represented the club with distinction: all in all some outstanding performances and a couple of excellent medals, but the season’s pattern of ifs, buts and maybes unfortunately continues. The inaugural Run Through Newcastle 10k took place at the weekend on a flat and fast out-and-back course along the city’s Quayside, with an elite A race featuring some 160 finishers and over 1500 in the mass participation B race.
Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan, in tremendous shape over the cross country this winter, was a winner of the A race in a time of 29 minutes 28 seconds, just pipping Gateshead’s Callum Johnson to the win, with Durham City Harrier Jasmine Wood first female finisher in 33:37. There were some nine Morpeth Harriers out in the A race, with Lawrence McCourt just missing out on a top three place, coming home 4th in 30:44, and Alex Brown next home for the club in 7th place (31:10). George Lowry was 12th in 32:05, Adam Pratt 28th in 34:32, Richie Hughes 32nd in 34:25, Ali Douglas 56th in 36:37, Jake Parmley 78th in 37:26, Shaun Land 79th in 37:23 and Ben Clarke 82nd in 37:35. There were six Morpeth Harriers in the following B race, with Richard Glennie first back for the club in 41:44 and Steve Johnstone 211th in 45:42. Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor obviously fancied winning the B more than featuring in the A, coming home in 32:05 with veteran Sarah Duncan first female to finish in 39:07. There were age category medals for three Morpeth veterans however, with Anna Wright 2nd Over 40 in 42:22, Shuna Rank 2nd O/55 in 46:08 and Pam Woodcock winning the O/70 category in 57:13. Laura Mclean also continues to make great strides, here running a personal best when finishing 207th overall in 46 minutes. The following morning saw the running of the ever popular and always over-subscribed Brass Monkey half marathon in York, with nearly 1700 finishers. Hallamshire Harrier Tommy Power was the winner in 1 hour 6 minutes 58 seconds, with Leeds City AC’s Sarah Potter finishing in 1:12:32 to take the woman’s race. Some six Morpeth Harriers travelled down the A19 to make the race, with Finn Brodie coming home 10th in 1:09:03 and Phil Winkler 12th in 1:09:11. Seasoned marathon runner Andrew Lawrence was 47th in 1:13:26, Rob Balmbra 64th in 1:14:30, John Butters 71st and 5th O/45 in 1:14:56 and Mark Snowball 697th in 1:36:26. Brad Duesbury, who was been training with Gordon Dixon’s group recently and will be hopefully joining the club soon from Telford AC, was 246th in 1:22:53. Several athletes from Morpeth Harriers braved some hard and frosty conditions at the annual Northumberland Schools Cross Country Championships, held at Temple Park, South Shields, last Tuesday.
Some of those competing also managed to gain qualification for the next round of the competition, the Northern Schools Inter Counties, to be held at Stewart Park, Middlesbrough on Saturday 3 February which will be the final stepping stone for qualification for the English Schools Championships at Pontefract Racecourse in March. In the Senior Boys event no fewer than six members of the club got into the top ten places, led home by Will Devere-Owen, who won in 21m24s. Third place went to Morpeth’s Elliot Kelso, here representing Tynedale Schools, and he was followed home very closely by club colleagues Ethan Phillips and Bertie Marr, who were fourth and fifth respectively, representing East Northumberland. Other Morpeth Harriers in action were Joe Close (Newcastle, 8th), Ryan Davies (East Northumberland, 9th), and Elliot Mavir (East Northumberland, 13th). Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson (East Northumberland) finished a creditable third in the Intermediate Boys event, with his club colleagues Ben Moll (East) and George Mavir ( East) finished fifteenth and seventeenth respectively. Despite a stomach bug, Junior Boy Ewan Line, who had surely been in line at least for a top three place, still managed to finish seventh, representing East Northumberland. Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the Junior Boys event were: Harry Douglas (Tynedale, 13th), James Rothwell (East, 21st), Thomas Roche (East, 27th), Evan Laude (East, 32nd), and Daniel Vermaas (East, 43rd). Two runners from the club took part in the Minor Boys event, with Jack Dhawar (East) finishing 31st and George Moll (East) 47th. Lucy Raper produced a fantastic run in the Minor Girls event to finish second, and fellow East Northumberland representatives and club colleagues Zoe Tomlinson and Emily Vermass finished 19th and 44th respectively. Three Morpeth Harriers and East Northumberland representatives featured in the top ten finishers in the Junior Girls event with Sophie Pledger 5th, Faye Heatley 8th, and Emma Tomlinson 10th. Anna Archibald, representing East Northumberland, finished 61st. Two athletes from Morpeth Harriers and East Northumberland faced the starter in the Intermediate Girls event, with Molly Roche battling well to finish 11th, and Iris Dungait in 23rd spot. Morpeth Harriers were back in cross-country action at the Birtley Relays, incorporating the North East Masters championships, held at Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy at the weekend.
A deceptively challenging two-lap course of 3000 metres per stage winding its way up, down and around the school fields presents competitors with more than just the expected heavy going under foot, and with three separate races totalling well over a hundred teams in total it was certainly a busy Sunday morning, with Morpeth picking up two team Gold and one team Bronze across the day. First race of the day, for Men 35 and upwards, saw the club pick its first medals, as a strong team of Andrew Lawrence, Rob Balmbra and Adam Pratt won in a total time of 32 minutes 58 seconds, well ahead of nearest rivals Tyne Bridge and Sunderland Harriers, for whom Steve Rankin ran the fastest Men’s Masters time of 10:41. Lawrence ran 11:02 on leg one, but it was Rob who moved the club up to first on second leg, with a powerful run of 11:07 that made light of the conditions, managing at the same time to get over a nasty fall in the mud at one point, but certainly not the only runner to take a tumble on the day. Adam ran the team’s fastest time of the day, 10:49, to bring the team home. The club’s Over 55s team of Neil MacAnany (13:28), Bill Tilley (14:34) and Gavin Bayne (14:11) missed out on a medal in their category in the same race when finishing fifth, but there was some consolation, with Neil recording the third fastest time for his O/60 category and Gav and Bill the second and third fastest in the O/60s (they would of course have walked the O/65s with a third member). The O/55s B of Paul Bellingham (14:55), Andrew Dippie (15:20) and Peter Scaife (16:29) finished as 8th in their category, with all three enjoying the return to competitive XC action. Just a shame the club couldn’t get out a complete O/45s. There were 51 complete teams in the following Senior and Masters Women combined event, with Morpeth’s Senior Women coming in 5th in 42:23 behind winners and hosts Birtley Harriers (38:43), for whom Katie Francis ran the day’s fastest time of 12:32. Lizzie Rank had another excellent outing for Morpeth on leg 1, however, clocking 12:45, the day’s third fastest time, with support from O/45 Claire Calverley (15:36), stepping in to make sure the team was complete and Lindsey Quinn (13:44). There was another team medal for Morpeth in the same race, however, with the O/55 team of Shuna Rank (15:34), Jane Briggs (15:50) and Nicola McCoy (16:27) finishing over three minutes ahead of nearest rivals Gateshead Harriers, with the three recording the day’s second, third and fifth fastest O/55 times. Birtley B won the Masters title in 41:44, with TBH’s Sophie Marr recording the fastest Masters time of 13:48. Last race of the morning had the smallest field of only fifteen complete teams but also featured the day’s closest finish, with Sunderland, Morpeth and Gateshead Harriers fighting out a close contest. It was last year’s winners Sunderland Harriers who took an early lead thanks to Scott Armstrong whose 9:52 was the day’s 2nd fastest overall time, with Morpeth coming home 4th in 10:22 thanks to Connor Marshall’s strong run. Tom Balsdon moved Morpeth up to 2nd with 10:33, with Sunderland still ahead and Gateshead into 3rd. All changed on the last leg, however, with 2020’s National Cross Country winner Calum Johnson looking in tremendous form as he set about closing down Morpeth’s George Lowry ahead of him, then went after Sunderland’s last leg runner Stephen Jackson. In the end, the day’s fastest time of 9:30 saw Gateshead finish in 30:31, over twenty seconds ahead of Sunderland (30:56), with Jackson also falling down at one point, and Morpeth finishing in third (31:17), with Lowry (10:22) not quite able to make up the ground to a fading Jackson. A good day’s work all round then, just a shame that for some reason we couldn’t get more teams out this year – it’s always a good one to be part of and to spectate. Two Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the third Gateshead Harriers Indoor Standards Meeting, held at Gateshead College on the evening of Wednesday 10 January.
Over 50 Veteran Man Trevor Hodgson began the New Year in excellent style by recording a new personal best time of 7.50s in the second fastest heat of the 60m, when finishing a good second behind Gateshead Under 23 athlete Nicson Melaco. Under 15 Girl Sophie Pledger was also in action, finishing second, in the second fastest of her age group heats, posting a season’s best of 8.66s. Her heat was won by Gateshead’s Holly Houghton in 8.55s. |
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