Northumberland proved to be the strongest force in the annual
Northern Inter Counties Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Middlesbrough Athletics Village on Saturday 18th June 2016. They won by a total margin of 76 points over Durham, with Cumbria finishing third ahead of event hosts Cleveland. Amongst the Northumberland successes were several athletes from Morpeth Harriers, some of whom will be awaiting calls indicating that they will be appearing at the forthcoming English Schools Track and Field Championships, scheduled to be held at Gateshead Stadium in July. One of those will be Andrew Knight, who won the Junior Boys Shot Putt with a best effort of 13.50m. In the Intermediate Boys events Morpeth provided four winners, two on the track and two on the field. Kieran Hedley won the 800m in 2m00.9s, and Taylor Glover won the 3000m in 9m18.8s, which was a new personal best On the Field, Ruaridh Lang won the Discus with a personal best 44.56m, and David Thomas won the Triple Jump with a best of 12.46m. Lang and Thomas also gained further podium places in the Shot Putt and Long Jump respectively, with bests of 12.51m and 6.05m, which gave them Bronze and Silver medals. Ruaridh’s Shot Putt was a new personal best, as was David’s. In the Senior Boys 1500m Morpeth’s Adam Gibbs took the Silver medal in 4m13.6s, and in the 800m, club colleague James Young took Bronze in 2m07.3s. Two medals were secured by Morpeth Harriers athletes in the Junior Girls events. Lottie Hume, who has progressed rapidly this year under the direction of coach Dave Thomas, produced an excellent winning throw of 26.27m, a brand new personal best, to win by a three metre margin in the Discus. Ellie Coxon finished third in the 800m in 2m29.3s, which was two seconds adrift of her lifetime personal best. No fewer than nine Championship podium places were achieved by Morpeth Harrier athletes in the Intermediate Girls events. Jessica Young-Rogers was a real star in this age group, winning the 200m in 26.5s, and finishing a good second in the 100m, only losing out in the judges room after producing the same time of 12.9s as the event winner. Harriet Priest finished second in the 300m Hurdles in 48.2s, and Hannah Brown finished third in the 80m Hurdles in 13.2s. The Intermediate Discus saw Morpeth athletes Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot and Bobbie Griffiths finish second and third respectively with best throws of 27.29m and 25.57m. Griffiths also finished second in her more favoured event the Javelin, where she threw a best of 31.46m. There was also a second podium place for Pickering-Pruvot, who was runner up in the Shot Putt, with her best effort of 11.47m. Ellie Burt produced new figures of 23.16m, when finishing second in the Hammer. Morpeth Harriers had two athletes in action in the Senior Girls events. Abby Sheldon won the 800m in 2m37.1s, and Lily Hood finished second in the 200m in 28.7s, and third in the 100m in 13.8s. Morpeths Laura Weightman continued he pre-Olympic preparations on Thursday 16th June,
when competing in the Stockholm Diamond League Meeting. She finished seventh, once again in a very much talent filled 1500m event, posting a finishing time of 4m05.94s, which proved to be two and a half seconds adrift of race winner Angelika Cichocka of Poland. Fellow Brit and Olympic hopeful Laura Muir of Scotland was two places, and only fractionally in front of her. The annual Newburn River Run, on Wednesday 15th June 2016, organised by Elswick Harriers,
attracted a total finishing field of 266 runners, amongst them were twelve members of Morpeth Harriers, who were led home by Mark Brown, who has not only taken up a coaching post at the club, but is also in the middle of a competitive comeback. Brown who was a very prolific road and cross country athlete nine or ten years ago, after first joining the club as a youngster in the 90’s, certainly appears to have lost none of his previous zest for activity, as he finished seventh in 38m37s, just over two minutes adrift of race winner Matt Hornsby of Durham City. Two places and sixteen seconds behind Mark, was his club colleague Mark Snowball. Other Morpeth Harriers finishers were as follows Michael Winter (21st) (4th O/45 Man) 42m26s, Peter Scaife (36th) (4th O/55 Man) 44m09s, Richard Kirby (68th) (12th O/45 Man) 46m57s, Hamish McCallister-Williams (77th) (5th O/50 Man) 47m18s, Mike Steven (106th) (8th O/55 Man) 49m40s, Jane Kirby (25th Woman) (3rd O/40 Woman) 51m17s, Carol Parry (48th Woman) (7th O/45 Woman) 55m23s, Sue Smith (75th Woman) (13th O/40 Woman) 58m36s, Jacinta Wake (77th Woman) (12th O/45 Woman) 58m41s, and Judith Clarkin (93rd Woman) (16th O/35 Woman) 62m55s. Holly Peck of Morpeth Harriers became the first ever Girl runner to win the annual Morpeth Fair Day Fun Run on Sunday 12th June. Peck, a Year 8 pupil at Chantry School, crossed the finish line just underneath the Clocktower, having completed the approximately 1 Mile Course, encompassing Bridge Street, Carlisle Park, and Oldgate, in 5m25s, winning by a margin of thirteen seconds from St Benet Biscop Year 7 pupil Dylan Davies, who was first Boy finisher, with Year 7 Newminster pupil Ben Waterfield finishing third, a further two seconds adrift. 106 runners were set off at 10.15am by Morpeth’s new Mayor Coun Andrew Tebbutt, as part of the Morpeth Fair Day Festivities, organised by the Morpeth Chamber of Trade. Despite the damp and very dull conditions, there was still a great deal of brightness
reflected in the performances of athletes from Morpeth Harriers, who were representing their respective areas at the annual Northumberland Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday 11th June 2016. The club produced no fewer than 25 event winners in all, two of them Championship bests, and eleven of those athletes achieved double wins. Thirteen wins in all came from the Boys events, with twelve coming from the Girls. Fifteen athletes from the club were also responsible for minor medals, achieving twelve Silver and three Bronze, to add to the tally of Gold wins. The two Championship bests came in the Field, courtesy of Andrew Knight in the Junior Boy’s Shot Putt, and Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot in the Intermediate Girls Shot Putt. Knight’s winning Putt of 13.93m was also a brand new personal best, which saw him improve on his previous effort by 58cm, which he had achieved at Jarrow three days before, which also now sees him ranked as second in the country, and first in the region. He also performed very well in the Discus, finishing second, with a best throw of 28.80m, which was almost three metres better than the previous best that he had thrown at Darlington at the end of May, and sees him ranked as 71st in the UK, and fourth regionally. Shot and Discus also proved most successful for Morpeth’s Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot in the Intermediate Girls section. She produced a Championship Best performance in the former with her best Putt of 12.08m, which was also a new personal best by a margin of 37cm, which now sees her ranked 29th in the UK, and more firmly maintains her status as top of the regions rankings. Charlotte also won a fairly competitive Discus by a margin of just over a metre and a half from club colleague Bobby Griffiths. She produced a best of 29.05m, which was around 55cm short of her lifetime best. Griffiths threw 27.51m, which for her was around 58cm adrift of her personal best. The Intermediate Girls Javelin saw Griffiths win with her best throw of 31.48m, and club colleague Ellie Burt finished just outside a podium place, finishing fourth with 21.05m, however Burt could feel well pleased with her effort in the Shot Putt, where she finished second to Pickering –Pruvot, with a personal best of 9.92m. Appropriately we continue with Field event successes for Morpeth Harriers athletes, where in the Intermediate Boys section the club had two double winners in David Thomas and Ruaridh Lang. Thomas produced excellent victories in the Long Jump and Triple Jump events. They were both new lifetime personal bests, with him achieving 5.92m in the Long Jump, and 12.50m in the Triple Jump. Thrower Ruaridh Lang was also in superb form, taking the Shot Putt with 12.29m and the Discus with 44.35m. Morpeth athlete Charlie Chisholm also competed in the Shot Putt and Discus events, finishing in fifth and fourth places with respective efforts of 9.09m and 31.04m. Morpeth’s Senior Shot and Discus specialist Elliot Moore was also a double winner with respective bests of 10.79m and 27.00m. Joe Briddon won the Junior Boys High Jump with a clearance of 1.52m. Another prominent Morpeth Field event performer was Lottie Hume, who won both the Junior Girls Shot and Discus events, with respective bests of 8.67m and 24.58m. Katie Hilton won the Intermediate Girls Triple Jump with a best of 10.03m. On to Track events, and Intermediate Girl Jessica Young-Rogers was certainly in no less than sparkling form, taking the titles in both the 100m (12.82s) and 200m (26.27s) events. Katie Hilton finished third in the Intermediate Girls 100m in 13.55s, and Naomi Arkle placed third in the 200m in 27.80s. Elsewhere in the Intermediate Girls Track events, there were wins for Hannah Brown in the 80m Hurdles (12.89s), and Harriet Priest in the 300m Hurdles (47.93s). Priest was second to Brown in the 80m Hurdles in 13.40s, and Brown played second fiddle to Priest in the longer event with 48.91s. Gracie Hufton finished second in the Intermediate Girls 3000m, posting a finishing time of 12m01.62s. In the Senior Girls events, Morpeth’s Lily Hood took victory in the 100m in 13.81s, and she also finished second in the 200m in 27.77s. Abbey Sheldon finished second in the 1500m in 5m38.13s. Three Morpeth athletes secured track victories in the Intermediate Boys events. Matthew Waterfield produced an excellent run to win the 400m in 52.76s, and Taylor Glover did likewise in the 3000m, posting a time of 9m34.27s. Kieran Hedley won the 800m in 2m01.60s, and was chased in by club colleagues Joe Dowd and Josh Burton, who finished third and fourth respectively, posting times of 2m05.73s and 2m07.27s. Morpeth produced two winners in the Senior Boys events with Adam Gibbs winning the 1500m in 4m06.31s, and Jake Masterman won the 2000m Steeplechase in 6m36.10s. In the Junior Boys events Ross Charlton finished a good second in the 1500m, posting a time of 4m42.39s. Holly Peck was a runaway winner of the Junior Girls 1500m in 5m02.64s, and Ellie Coxon finished second in the 800m in 2m27.32s. Lily Heaton finished just outside the podium places in the latter, posting a finishing time of 2m31.95s. Meanwhile over at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow, in the Durham Schools Championships, Morpeth’s Joe Armstrong tasted winning success in the Senior Boys 1500m, where he posted a time of 4m05.3s. Club colleague Jacob Hopkins finished fifth in the Senior Boys 800m in 2m11.8s. |
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