English and Scottish National Cross Country Championships
 
Incessant rain on Thursday, falling on already saturated ground caused the cancellation of the English National Cross Country Championships, due to be held in Shropshire on Saturday although the very late cancellation on Friday morning meant some athletes and families had already set off.

It is only the third time since the Second World War that this has happened, with the other occasions not due to the conditions but to either foot and mouth disease or covid.
 
The ECCA have now announced that the Championships will take place in September, which is likely to have an impact of course on the local XC season. Watch this space.
 
However, the Lindsays Scottish Nationals did take place at Falkirk over the same weekend, with Morpeth’s Catriona Macdonald once again in action.
 
Running for her Scottish club Bellahouston Road Runners, Cat finished 10th, recording a time of 38 minutes 58 seconds for the grassy 10k course, with the race won by Edinburgh AC’s Alice Goodall in 36:03.
 
Finishing 10th in each of the last three years, she’s certainly proved to be the model of consistency, although Saturday’s time was also the fastest she has so far recorded.
 
Osaka Marathon
 
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Morpeth life member Serod Batochir ran a remarkable 2 hours 10 minutes 10 seconds when representing Mongolia in the Osaka Marathon, won in a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 18 seconds by the host country’s Kiyoto Hirabayashi in some difficult conditions.
 
Now 42 years of age, Batochir will be aiming to represent his country in the Paris Olympics this Summer – an incredible seventh Games for the well-travelled veteran. 

England Masters

Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson maintained his current run of excellent form when representing North East Masters at the England Masters Inter Area Indoor Match, held at Lee Valley, Edmonton in London on Sunday.

Hodgson very comfortably won his heat of the Over 50’s 60m, posting a time of 7.48s, which was only a mere fraction adrift of his lifetime best of 7.39s, posted at the same venue seven days previous in the British Masters Championships.

His next racing appointment is in Torun in Poland in three weeks’ time at the European Masters, and his current form should see him a red-hot favourite for a top podium placing.

​Morpeth Harriers & Athletics Club's AGM will take place on Tuesday March 26.

The meeting will take place in Morpeth Rugby Club beginning at 7.30pm.

The club has a busy schedule of events across the summer - including playing host to two track and field meetings at King Edwards in June - and one of the key items of discussion will be the need to provide support for these and other events across the year.

Other areas of discussion will be team management and fundraising/sponsorship to help the club meet it's growing financial commitments.

Please send any other items for discussion to David Swinburne by March 19. 

​Morpeth Harriers James Young and Scott Beattie finished just outside the medals in Sunday’s 3000m, at the Microplus UK Athletics Championships, held at Birmingham on Sunday.
Beattie had led for a good proportion of the event, however despite a desperate fightback, he faded to fifth, just behind Young, who had run steadily just behind the leaders throughout.
Young finished fourth in a new personal best time of 7m54.24s, taking almost a second off his previous figures, whilst Beattie produced a time of 7m54.64s, about seven seconds adrift of his best.
The race was won by Tonbridge’s James West in 7m51.09s, whilst the Silver and Bronze medals went to Charles Wheeler of Milton Keynes (7m52.19s), and Bracknell’s Zak Seddon (7m53.52s).

Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson certainly went out all guns blazing, when he very convincingly won the Over 50 Men’s 60m Gold Medal at the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Lee Valley, London, at the weekend.
Not only did he win Sunday’s Final, but he did also it by producing a new personal best of 7.39s, his previous best being the 7.50s, that he had run in the Gateshead Series in January.
He had earlier won his opening heat in 7.55s, from Lincoln Wellington’s Nick Johnston Davis, who eventually got fourth in the final, where the minor medals were won by Veteran AC’s Richard Brooks, and Eastern Masters Yinka Opaleye.
Hodgson’s next race will be Torun in Poland in March in the European Masters Championships, as he goes in an England’s Number One, and Eleventh All Time in his age group.
The 52-year-old;s confidence is certainly on a high at the moment, and the chances of adding other medals, particularly gold are also within reach, especially as he has now achieved a new North East record, and is the fastest ever for his age, and is now sixth fastest in the world this year.

​Saturday saw the NECAA Road Relays Championships held once again at Hetton Lyons Country Park a few miles south of Durham, with the club turning out in numbers for both of the day’s two races and retaining the Royal Signals Trophy.
 
On the weekend’s evidence, competition  seems to be getting even tougher and notably in Race 1 (over four legs of the 2.2 mile, two lap course) which again incorporated both Senior and Veteran Women teams as well as Veteran Men Over 50, with Morpeth fielding full teams in all three categories.
 
The race was won commandingly by NSP in a cumulative time of 50 minutes 23 seconds, for whom Charlotte Penfold ran the fastest female time (Senior or Veteran) of 11:55, with Birtley some way back in 2nd (53:35) and Jarrow and Hebburn 3rd (54:03). 
 
Morpeth’s challenge was headed by Lizzie Rank, who ran 13:46 on leg 1, with Tayla Douglas clocking 14:40 for leg 2.
 
There was a promising Senior debut for Molly Roche here on leg 3, who despite having just turned fifteen looked not at all out of place when running 14:28, with Poppy Buck recording the team’s fastest time of 13:38 for a cumulative time of 56:32. The team finished as 7th Senior outfit.
 
Meanwhile the Female Vets competition was unfolding at the same time, won this time by Sunderland Strollers in 56:13, for whom evergreen Aly Dixon clocked the team’s fastest time. This wasn’t actually the quickest of the day however, that distinction going to Justina Heslop with 12:45 for Elswick Harriers.
 
For Morpeth, Laura Maclean recorded 15:45 on leg 1, with Pam Woodcock clocking 19:31 on leg 2.
 
There was the welcome sight of Morag Stead back in action in blue and white on leg 3, her 13:14 the team’s fastest time with Fran Naylor’s 17:46 finishing the team’s total of 1:06:16 for 16th place.
 
The Men’s Over 50 race was of similar quality, with a ding-dong battle between Crook and NSP at the sharp end, and all this after New Marske’s Martin Murray on leg 1 had put the North Yorks outfit (last year’s winners) into an early lead with the day’s fastest time of 12:29.
 
With  leading Over 60s Greg Penn and Guy Bracken both turning out, NSP were looking good for the win, but it slipped out of their hands on the last leg, with Crook recording a time of 52:11 to the Poly’s 52:55. Elswick were 3rd on 52:37.
 
Morpeth’s Over 50s finished in a respectable 10th, with runs by Paul Bellingham (15:30), Stephen Land - on his blue and white debut - on leg 2 (15:17), Ian Armstrong the team’s fastest on leg 3 (13:06) and Jason Dawson (14:10), the team’s cumulative time being 58:03.
 
Race 2, held this time over the customary six stages, saw Morpeth retain their title once again against the best of the rest from the North East, with their Over 40s also medalling in the same race.
 
In fact the club’s winning time of 1 hour 4 minutes 1 seconds was only five seconds off the record they had set last year, with Gateshead Harriers nearly two minutes back in 1:05:55.
 
The early lead set by Finn Brodie ((10:34) was whittled away however when a flying Calum Johnson for Gateshead on leg 2 recorded 10:01, the day’s fastest time, in overtaking George Lowry (10:46), to put the Tyneside outfit into the lead. It must have been groundhog day for poor George, who had similarly suffered the Northern Cross Country winner hard on his heels at the Birtley Relays a month earlier.
 
However, after Alistair Douglas had chipped steadily away at that lead on leg 3 (10:56), Alex Brown put Morpeth back in the driving seat with a 10:34 clocking, and thereafter, with Connor Marshall recording 10:48 and last leg runner Carl Avery 10:23, the final margin of victory was more than comfortable.
 
Remarkably, the club’s B team of Peter Smallcombe (10:52), Oliver Calvert (11:07), James Tilley (11:01), Elliot Kelso (11:15), Tom Balsdon (11:03) and Mark Banks (11:19) finished in third place in a cumulative time of 1:06:37. It was certainly a pleasing  return for Oli Calvert and great to see so much young blood in the team - although with only set of medals available per club, the lads were unable to collect the team Bronze their performance perhaps deserved, the medals going instead to 4th place Sunderland Harriers (1:08:06).
 
A further C team of Tom Prentice (11:10), Adam Pratt (11:46), Lee Cuthbertson (12:32), Shaun Land (12:30), Jake Parmley (13:13) and Dave Marshall (14:15) also made the top twenty, coming in with a highly respectable 1:15:26 for 19th place. Special praise here for the man with the muscles on leg 6, who was only roped in at a couple of hours notice (and after already running that morning), whose efforts meant the team was complete.
 
The Over 40 Veteran Men’s race was as fiercely contested as the 50s had been, with NSP this time taking the Gold thanks to a fine 1st leg clocking of 11:07 by James Anderson, the day’s fastest O/40 time, the Poly team recording 1:14:38 ahead of Elvet Striders in 2nd on 1:16:32.
 
But it was good to see Morpeth’s O/40s picking up a hard won Bronze at the same time, thanks to legs by Tony Lewis (12:59), Andrew Hebden (13:19), Lee Bennett, stepping down from the 50s (12:40), Ben Heatley (13:11), Colin Archer (13:03) and Andy Ball, whose 12:43 despite a week’s illness saw him get ahead of Gateshead’s last leg runner on the final stage for a cumulative time of 1:17:55.
 
Well done to all who took part – always a great day’s racing here.