​Four athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action for the North East Counties at Saturday’s British Athletics Road Race Championships for younger age groups that were contested within the annual London Mini Marathons, held in the nation’s capital.
The best result for the region came in the Under 17 Men’s section, where they finished second to the South East.
Finishing 12th, Will Devere-Owen was second counter for the North East, with club colleague Liam Roche fractionally behind in 13th place.
Outside the scoring count was Morpeth’s Bertie Marr, who was fifth home for the region in 44th place.
The regions Under 15 Boys finished as twelfth team behind winners North West.
Morpeth’s Ollie Tomlinson was third counter in 52nd place.

There were nine finishers, including the race winner, from the club at the Terry O’Gara Memorial 5k held at the Cobalt Business Park and hosted by Wallsend Harriers.
 
Winning in a new course record of 14 minutes 26 seconds, Alex Brown showed a clean pair of heels to nearest challengers Joe Wales of Gateshead Harriers (14:52) and Chris Coulson of Houghton Harriers (14:56).
 
Fourth and fifth were two of the club’s talented youngsters, with Peter Smallcombe having an excellent run in 4th (15:15) and KEVI sixth former James Tilley recording a personal best in 5th (15:26).
 
Behind them, Mark Banks was 17th in 16:06, new member Andrew Ball, in his first race in a Morpeth vest 27th and first Over 45 (16:34), Shaun Land 48th (17:26) and Dave Nicholson 118th and first Over 65 in 19:50. 
 
Also great to see Gemma Floyd racing again, 116th and 19th female runner in 19:48, with Kirsty Burville 121st and 21st just outside the twenty minute mark (20:02).
 
The women’s race was won by Elswick’s Sophie Harris in 16:20 with Wallsend’s Danielle Hodgkinson 2nd in 16:47 and Holly Waugh 3rd (16:48).
 
With just over 200 finishers, thankfully there was no repeat of the calamitous accident at the start from last year.
 

​There were five Morpeth Harriers amongst the 48,000 runners who pounded the streets of the capital on a damp Sunday morning for the 2023 TCS London Marathon.
 
This year’s race was certainly amongst the most memorable of recent times, with Kenyan Kelvin Kiptun running the second fastest marathon time ever to take the Men’s title in a new course record of 2 hours 1 minute 25 seconds, and Dutch track specialist Sifan Hassan winning on her marathon debut in 2:18:33.
 
Leeds City AC athletes Emile Cairess and Phil Sesemann, 6th and 8th respectively, were the first two GB athletes home, with Cairess’s time of 2:10:28 putting him third on the UK all-time list after Mo Farah and Steve Jones.
 
Meanwhile in his ninth London, marathon veteran Andrew Lawrence was first back in blue and white, finishing in 185th place in 2:32:03, and Andy was closely followed by Over 40s Ade Whitwam, 256th in 2:34:09, and Ian Harding, recording 2:34:36 (274th).
 
Rob Hancox put injury worries from training behind him to finish not far over the three hour mark in an impressive 3:06:35, and, in her first ever attempt at the distance, Linzi Quinn clocked a very respectable 3:47:54. 

New pavement works on Newgate Street in Morpeth commence on Monday 24 April 2023, and are expected to last for a period of at least ten weeks.
As a result of this, traffic on the stretch of road between the Junction of Manchester Street, and Dogger Bank, leading to Mitford Road, and the Morpeth Harriers Clubhouse at Grange House Field, will only be able to move in a Southerly direction.
This means that anyone coming from a southerly direction into Morpeth, will only be able to access from either a westerly approach, either from High House Bank/Craik Park/Kirkhill area, or from the North, such as Northgate Roundabout, via Lancaster Park, from A1 area, or via the Northern By Pass, from Whorral Bank areas, North of Morrison’s Supermarket.
It is very likely that there will be severe congestion in Morpeth throughout the whole of this period, as despite the work only being carried out between 7.00am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday, the restrictions will remain in place 24/7.

​There were over 18,000 finishers in Sunday’s Manchester Marathon, with some four Morpeth Harriers taking part.
 
Jake Parmley had a fine run to come home in 1235th, but agonisingly just six seconds over the three hour mark, with Claire Calverley also running well to finish in 3:38:11 (5096 overall, 469th female).
 
Jason Dawson ran 4:51:08 for 14649th and, in her first ever marathon, Kate Gaffing 5:16:26 (16,301 and 4178th female).
 
The race was won by Ignas Brasevicius in 2:16:27 with NE Project’s Kieran Walker 2nd in 2:17:30 and Ollie Lockley 3rd (2:20:47).
 
Reading AC’s Naomi Mitchell was first woman home in 2:31:27 with the wonderfully-named Malin Starfelt 2nd (2:36:44) an Georgie