Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard defied the driving rain and windy conditions that prevailed during his latest 3000m outing in the BMC Regional Meeting, held at Scotstoun, near Glasgow, on the evening of Friday 31st May 2019.

Leonard posted a time of 8m24.91s, his second-best time of the season, and six seconds adrift of his lifetime best, when winning the Men’s, A Race from fellow North East and Under 20 rival Sam Charlton of Wallsend Harriers by a margin of two seconds.

Obviously the conditions seriously affected times, which Leonard could only reflect some disappointment, and afterwards thought that they were somewhat akin to the Cross Country season, however he still remains positive about the forthcoming season, and appearing on the International stage, preferably in the longer 5000m,
where he is currently ranked No 3 in Europe, and convincingly No 1 in the UK,
and possibly having a tilt at his Father Tony’s best time for the distance, which still sits at 14m08.38s,
a time which he achieved in 1981 in Brighton.
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Rory’s best time for the distance, achieved one week ago is 14m16.35s.

Morpeth Harriers and its athletes featured prominently in the recent
Morpeth Sports Awards evening, held on Thursday 23rd May 2019, at Morpeth Rugby Club.

The awards were presented by the newly elected Mayor of Morpeth Alison Byard, and among the Clubs recipients were Rory Leonard (Senior Male), Laura Weightman (Senior Female), Walter Ryder (Male Masters),
plus Senior and Under 18 Team awards, which went to the Morpeth Harriers
​Under 20 Men’s Road and Cross Country Squad, and Under 15 Boys Road and Cross Country squads respectively.
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Morpeth Harriers also featured in the main Mayors Award for 2018 achievements, which went to Daniel Dixon.

Jordan Scott was first home and Cat Macdonald first woman at the
13th Druridge Bay 10k on Bank Holiday Sunday 26th May 2019

A case once again of hometown boy makes good, Jordan had in fact won the race in its second ever year and maintains the select list of the ‘Amble Massive’ (Harding, Taylor, Scott) who have triumphed most years ever since the race’s inception. (And don’t forget, Laura W from only a bit further up the coast ran the race in its first two years when she was still at school). Jordan finished in a time of 34 minutes and 55 seconds (for comparison, in 2008 when he was nowt but a lad he won in its second year in 37m 33s).
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Cat Macdonald was tenth overall and ran 40m 22s with sister Lorna chasing her all the way to finish as second woman in 41m 5s. Lindsey finished a bit further back but is making steady progress with a time of 48m 52s.
Jason Dawson also had a good run to finish in 6th place in 39m 31s and Phil Smith was 30th in 44m 56s. Ali D meanwhile paced Tayla round to finish together in 44m 42s, with Tayla 4th woman home.

In his first ever track 5000m, Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard finished a very respectable seventh in a total field of twenty two top class athletes, who contested the premier of three Senior Men’s races covering the twelve and a half laps at the BMC Grand Prix Meeting, held at Sports City in Manchester, on the evening of Saturday 25th May 2019.

Leonard certainly locked horns with some of the country’s best, as he clocked a very respectable time
of 14m16.35s, behind Thames Valley’s Petros Surafel, who won in a very fast time of 13m52.79s.

The Morpeth Under 20 athlete can feel well pleased however, as he was by far the leading finisher in his age group ahead of three others, and he now goes firmly to the top of the UK Rankings for his age group, also currently ranking him 27th overall in the UK for the distance.

Another Morpeth Harrier competing in the same race as Leonard was Carl Avery,
who finished tenth in a seasons best of 14m27.81s.

Alex Brown of Morpeth Harriers finished nineteenth in the B Race of the 5000m,
posting a finishing time of 15m24.53s.

James Young of Morpeth Harriers was another club member who excelled on the night, as he produced a new personal best of 3m44.47s in the 1500m A Race, improving on his previous best by just over three seconds, and also a time that sees him ranked currently as 24th in the UK.

He finished a very close second to Preston’s Matthew Wigglesworth, who won in 3m44.03s.
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In the 1500m C Race, Morpeth’s Kieran Hedley finished eleventh, posting a seasons best time of 3m58.37s.

​Mhairi MacLennan, finished third in the Women’s 5000m, where she produced an excellent new lifetime personal best of 15m51.78s, when finishing third to Blackburn’s Jessica Judd (15m39.00s).
MacLennan’s improvement measured eighteen seconds on previous figures.

Alistair Douglass of Morpeth Harriers narrowly missed out on victory and getting his hands on the Jimmy Hedley Cup at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on the evening of Wednesday 22nd May 2019.

Douglass ran hard all the way in the Senior seeded 800m A Race at the second meeting of the North Eastern Grand Prix competition, but just lost out to recent Terry O’Gara road race winner, and newly crowned North Eastern Counties 800m Champion Matt Linsley of Gateshead Harriers, who posted a time of 1m57.45s.

Linsley, who led most of the way, had produced a new lifetime best of 1m52.99 at the opening North East Regional BMC Meeting at Chester Le Street two nights previously, when finishing second to Houghton’s Under 17 athlete Henry Johnson, however it was clearly obvious that he was not going to lose out again, as he produced the strongest of finishes to deny Douglass, who lost out by slightly less than one second.

Douglass had been ill since returning from a recent holiday in Italy and was fortunate to make the start line at all, nevertheless his posting of 1m58.38s was truly a brave effort under such circumstances.

Another Morpeth Harrier competing in the 800m A Race was Under 17 athlete Ben Waterfield,
who finished sixth of eight in the race in 2m01.14s, just one second adrift of his lifetime personal best.
Waterfield was easily the fastest Under 17 Man in the three 800m races.

Rhiannon Hedley was fourth in the 800m C Race, posting a time of 2m21.49s.
Five athletes from Morpeth Harriers took part in the seeded 3000m,
which had a total of thirty competitors spread over the two required races.

Four of the five competed in the A Race, who were led home by Adam Pratt,
who just lost out in a rare photo-finish for such a distance, posting a finishing time of 8m55.37s,
which was just four seconds adrift of his lifetime personal best.
Houghton’s Will Bellamy clocked 8m55.13s, to claim his victory.
Karl Taylor battled away in his first race for some time, to finish fourth in 9m02.06s.

Morpeth’s Dylan Davies ran superbly against more Senior athletes and emerged to emerge as the third fastest Under 17 athlete, posting a new lifetime best of 9m50.43s, taking around four seconds off his previous figures,
a tremendous achievement by the youngster.
Dylan had run most of the race by stalking fellow Morpeth Harrier Brad Brown,
who eventually finished two places adrift of him.
Brown, a first year Under 20 athlete, was running the distance
for the first time, he posted a time of 10m36.52s.
Another Morpeth Harrier competing over the distance for the first time was Tayla Murdy,
who clocked 12m22.69s.
Murdy had also been holidaying with boyfriend Douglass in Italy
and had returned also feeling under the weather.

Under 15 Boy Bertie Marr had an excellent run in the Junior Graded 1500m A Race, finishing fifth
in a new personal best time of 4m37.14s, taking exactly three seconds off his previous figures.
He finished eleven seconds adrift of event winner Rowan Teasdale of Billingham Marsh House.

Morpeth’s other track performance came from Under 15 Girl Olivia Gent,
who was sixth in the Junior Graded 200m A Race, where she posted a time of 29.83s.

Morpeth’s Jessica Gardiner who has been in excellent form of late,
won both the Under 17 Hammer, and Discus events,
producing on the night best efforts of 36.92m, and 32.76m respectively.
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Under 20 Man Ruaridh Lang won his age group Discus, producing a best effort of 42.14m.