It was a busy weekend of athletics activity for athletes from Morpeth Harriers, with all generations in action at two high-profile BMC events on Saturday, along with club Masters in their regional championships, plus Friday night's combined NESDL and NEYDL Open Meeting at Shildon.
In the BMC meeting, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium, Peter Smallcombe proved to be the club's fastest over 1500m, finishing sixth in the B race in 3m58.43s, one place ahead of club colleague, Connor Marshall, who was delighted to get under the four-minute barrier for the first time, posting a new personal best of 3m59.20s, his previous best being set in April 2023, 4m01.90s.
Two places behind Marshall was his Under 20 Club Colleague Elliot Kelso, who also posted new figures of 4m00.18s, taking nearly six seconds off his previous best.
Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the B race were James Tilley and Joseph Close, who posted respective times of 4m02.34s, and 4m06.16s.
Three Morpeth Harriers lined up in the 1500m C race, where Bertie Marr led the trio home in second place in a season’s best of 4m02.48s. Joe Dixon posted a new personal best time of 4m03.13s, when finishing fourth, taking just over a second off previous figures. Alistair Douglass finished ninth, posting a season’s best of 4m06.00s.
In a mixed gender F race, Morpeth’s Holly Lawrence posted a new personal best time of 4m50.30s, when finishing eighth, as fourth female finisher, taking nearly four seconds off her previous figures set in 2022.
Meanwhile in the other high-profile BMC Meeting, held at Loughborough in the Grand Prix, in his first outing since his 10,000m in Rome at the European Championships, Morpeth’s Rory Leonard tackled the 1500m A race, to finish fifth in a new personal best of 3m42.85s, taking almost two seconds off his previous best set in 2021.
Two other Morpeth Harriers were also in action at Loughborough.
Josh Fiddaman posted a season’s best of 3m49.14s, when finishing fifth in the 1500m C race, and in the D race, Phil Winkler posted a time of 3m54.33s, when finishing sixth.
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Eight Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at Saturday’s North East Masters Track and Field Championships, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium.
No one was busier than Over 45 Veteran Woman thrower Claire Reid, who competed as an annually welcome guest in the four scheduled throws events.
In the Shot Putt she produced a best of 9.11m, in the Javelin a best of 14.85m, in the Discus, sa best of 29.16m, and in the Hammer, a best of 24.61m.
Gold Medals were won by Phil Pitt in the Over 45 100m in 12.19s, and Trevor Hodgson in the Over 50 competition in 12.36s.
Phil also won a Silver Medal in the 200m in 25.42s.
Most successful on the day was evergreen Over 65 Veteran Man Gavin Bayne, a triple Gold Medal winner in the 800m (2m49.89s), 1500m (5m40.97s), and 3000m (11m55.20s).
Ben Harding won the Over 50 Men’s 400m in 56.94s, Archie Jenkins was a Silver medallist in the Over 70 Men’s 800m in 4m00.62s and Andrew Dippie was fourth in the Over 60 Men’s 800m in 3m00.07s, but did manage a third in the 5000m in 23m51.97s.
Pam Woodcock finished second in the Over 70 Women’s 800m in 3m49.33s and was also second in her age group 1500m in 7m36.33s.
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Three Morpeth Harriers competed at the first combined NEYDL/NESDL Open Meeting held at Shildon on Friday evening.
Claire Reid warmed up for her following day’s competitions at the NEMAA Track and Field Championships by taking part in the three throws competitions on offer, Discus, Javelin, and Shot Putt.
In the Discus she threw 28.67m, which saw her win the Senior Women’s section.
She finished as second Senior Woman in the Javelin with a best throw of 14.68m and won the Shot Putt with a best effort of 9.02m.
Under 15 Girl sprinter Sophie Pledger took part in both the 100m and 200m events, finishing sixth in her race in the 100m in 13.31.3s, making her fastest in her age group, and also fifth in her 200m race in 26.81.18s, which again, made her fastest in her age group.
Under 13 Girl Heidi Wilkinson finished sixth in her One Mile Race, in a time of 5m50.15s.

Eighteen athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in action at the third North East Grand Prix meeting held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on 12 June.
Thankfully, although there was a bit of chill in the air, the event was not subject to the deluge of rain, which had seen the postponement of almost all of the field events, and a couple of hurdle events, at the previous meeting at the end of May.
Under 17 Woman specialist thrower Alexandria Hodgson was in superb form in the Hammer, producing figures of 46.72m, which was just slightly adrift of her personal best.
Those figures easily saw her win her age group competition.
Another Morpeth athlete in action in the throws cage was Under 20 Man Edward Gardiner, who threw 42.47m in the Discus.
The main event of the evening on the track was the A Race of the Mile, which was run for the Stan Long Trophy.
Five Morpeth Harriers were amongst the line up, and James Tilley proved to be the best of these, finishing fourth in a strong run in, posting a time of 4m18.44s.
The other four Morpeth finishers were, Elliot Kelso (8th) 4m20.99s, Joe Dixon (9th) 4m22.70s, Bertie Marr (10th) 4m22.71s, and Sam Hancox (14th) 4m28.26s.
Three Morpeth Harriers were lined up in the B Race, and Mark Banks was unlucky not to win here, just losing out to Under 17 Gateshead Harrier Alfie Cook, after making most of the pace throughout.
Banks was rewarded by him recording a new personal best however, with figures of 4m32.66s, taking almost eight seconds off his previous figures, set in 2022.
Other Morpeth runners competing in the Mile B Race were Under 17 Men Oliver Tomlinson and Harry Armstrong, who finished twelfth and fifteenth in respective times of 4m42.28s, and 4m49.17s.
In the fourth fastest Mile Race, Morpeth’s Holly Lawrence finished tenth, posting a finishing time of 5m17.14s.
Emma Tomlinson and Heidi Wilkinson of Morpeth Harriers finished seventh and eleventh in the fifth fastest miles, posting respective times of 5m32,61s, and 5m43.89s.
In the sixth fastest Mile Race, Morpeth’s Zoe Tomlinson and Charlotte Marshall finished sixth and fourteenth, in times of 5m54.97s, and 6m46.09s.
There were two personal bests achieved by Morpeth Harriers Ben Harding and Jason Dawson in the third fastest 400m.
Ben finished third in 57.52s, and Jason finished eighth in 60.56s.
Last, but certainly not least, Triple Jumper Charlotte Earl stepped up to the plate by competing in the fifth fastest 100m event, finishing fifth in 13.45s.

* Morpeth Harriers Under 20 Throws specialist Edward Gardiner threw a massive new personal best of 45.32m in the Discus competition at the Northern Inter Counties Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday.
The club's other thrower in action was Alexandria Hodgson, and she threw 44.68m to finish second in the Intermediate Girls Hammer, to North Yorkshire’s Ella McIntosh.  

Morpeth’s Rory Leonard collected his first vest as a Senior International when representing Great Britain in the 10000m in the Olympic Stadium in Rome at the European Athletics Championships on the evening of 11 June.
The final day of competition saw Rory finish 17th overall in a time of 28 minutes 33.66 seconds, some way off his best for the distance which he had set at the Highgate Night of 10000pbs.
The race was won by the Swiss athlete Dominic Lobalu in 28:00.32.
Reflecting however with a youthful maturity on the experience, he later commented in interview: "It wasn't quite how I envisioned it going but I also knew it was going to be a day where I'd have to learn…this is a learning curve.’’
Watch the full interview here: Rory Leonard reflects on his first senior championships in the European 10,000m final (youtube.com)

​On day 2 of the Northern Athletics Under 20 and Senior Track and Field Championships, held at Middlesbrough Sports Village, three Morpeth Harriers women achieved gold medals, by being first Seniors amongst Under 20's, and one achieved bronze.

In the 5000m, Veteran athlete Morag Stead made her Gold podium spot, posting a personal best time of 18m05.21s.

Fellow Veteran athlete Nisha Desai also made her podium place in the 400m Hurdles, posting a season's best of 64m23s, but it was bronze for her as third Senior.

The second gold podium place was achieved by Morpeth's Women's Team Manager Rachelle Falloon, who also posted a personal best of 7m51.64s in the 2000m Steeplechase.

Other Morpeth Harriers in action on the second day were Ellis Hetherington and Poppy Buck.

Ellis finished sixth in the Men's 800m in 1m57.51s, and Poppy was sixth in the Women's 800m in 2m34.77s, however she picked up a Senior Gold, as she was the only Senior in the line up, the rest being Under 20's.

Well done to all.

The annual Morpeth fair day fun run on 9th June had a great turn out. The run was won by Mason Taylor with Izzy Hall first female. Results below.