Thirteen athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the fifth and penultimate North East Grand Prix Meeting, held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on the evening of Wednesday 24 July.
Six of those athletes took part in the fastest 1500m event. Under 20 athlete Will Devere-Owen, produced a time of 3m59.51s, which earned him fifth place. Three places behind him was his Morpeth clubmate, and fellow Under 20 athlete Bertie Marr (3m59.84s), holding off a club procession behind him, Joseph Close (9th) 3m59.89s, Connor Marshall (10th) 4m02.68s, and Alistair Douglass (11th) 4m05.68s. Joe Dixon of Morpeth Harriers finished 13th in 4m08.81s. In the 1500m B race, Oliver Tomlinson finished ninth in 4m19.26s. Oliver’s younger sister Emma finished 11th in the 1500m E race in 5m13.68s. In the 1500m F race, two Morpeth Harriers were amongst the finishers. The improving Heidi Wilkinson, produced new figures of 5m15.37s when finishing sixth, and the youngest Tomlinson, Zoe, finished tenth in 5m25.55s. In the D race of the 400m, Morpeth Senior Woman Poppy Buck, produced new figures of 63.88s when finishing fifth. Morpeth sprinter Ellie Wickens finished sixth in the E race of the 100m in 14.07s, and specialist Hammer Thrower Alexandria Hodgson had a best throw of 44.93m on the night. Twenty-two young athletes competed in Morpeth Harriers final match of the 2024 season of the NEYDL Division 2 campaign, held at Shildon on Sunday 21 July, where the club acted as hosts for the day.
Nine male and 13 female members of the club took part, and Morpeth rounded off their season by finishing sixth out of eight competing teams on the day, which also made them sixth overall cumulatively. Under 17 sprinter Harrison Scott rounded off a good season, which saw him make his Senior debut the previous week, by turning the tables on his New Marske rival Finley McKitterick in the 200m, which he won by a hairsbreadth after posting the same time of 22.85s, which proved to be a new personal best. Earlier in the day, he had finished second to McKitterick in the 100m, where he had posted 11.50s, which was just outside his best figures. Also competing in the 100m for Morpeth were Conner Phillips, Will Hodgson, and Steven Craske. Phillips posted a time of 11.90s, which made him second in the B race, and was a new personal best. Hodgson’s and Craske’s times were 12.2s and 13.2s, respectively. In the Under 17 Men’s 800m, Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson won in a season’s best of 2m09.45s. Tomlinson also produced a new personal best of 22.01m when finishing second in the Under 17 Men’s Discus. He also went on to record a personal best of 20.37m when winning the Javelin. Under 17 Woman specialist thrower Alexandria Hodgson produced her third best performance of the year so far, when winning the Hammer with a best of 46.98m. Morpeth’s Amelia Hamlin, in only her second outing of the season, finished third in the Under 17 Women’s 300m in a time of 44.75s. Molly Roche of Morpeth was second in the B race in 50.62s. Morpeth only had two Under 15 Boys on the day competing. Thomas Roche did the lions share of the work here, finishing third in the 200m in 28.2s, second in the B race of the 1500m (5m28.79s), And third in the 300m (46.96s), which was a new personal best. Harry Douglass of Morpeth finished fourth in the A race of the Under 15 Boys 1500m in 4m50.47s. Morpeth Harriers had five athletes to call upon for their Under 15 Girls events. Sophie Pledger was the star performer here, with two A race wins to her credit. She won the 100m in 13.20s, which was a new non wind assisted personal best, and also later won the 300m in 43.55s, which was only a fraction outside her personal best. Good B race support for Morpeth in these events came respectively from Sofia Gibson in the 100m (13.79s), for second place, and Mya Young (47.87s), also just a fraction adrift of her personal best. Mya also finished fifth in the A race of the 200m in 29.54s, a new personal best here, being well backed up in the B race by Faye Heatley, who finished third in 31.27s, also a new personal best. Heatley also produced new figures in the 800m B race of 2m38.40s, where she finished second, giving good backing to Emma Tomlinson’s A race performance, where she also finished second in 2m32.30s, also just a mere fraction adrift of her personal best. Another performance of note in the Under 15 Girls events, was the excellent Long Jump win by Sofia Gibson, with a performance of 4.41m. In the Under 13 Girls events, Lucy Raper had wins in the Discus (21.61m), and Shot Putt (6.96m), the Discus performance being a new personal best. On the track, Heidi Wilkinson won the 1500m in 5m32.67s, which was three seconds adrift of her personal best. Zoe Tomlinson finished second in the 800m in 2m44.86s, which was a new personal best, and she also finished second in the Javelin with 12.10m, another personal best, being well backed up in the B string by Lucy Raper, who won with a best of 11.25m, also a personal best performance. Morpeth could only call upon the services of one Under 13 Boy, and he paid rich dividends. Making his club debut, Aaron Bacon rewarded his new colleagues well by comfortably winning the Javelin with a best throw of 28.70m. The club would want to thank all of those athletes who took part in the four matches throughout the season, and all club officials and helpers who attended the fixtures, we could not have managed without your continued support. MATCH RESULT 1st Blyth/Alnwick 720pts, 2nd Middlesbrough/Houghton/Derwentside 523pts, 3rd Chester Le Street/Durham City 504pts, 4th New Marske 446pts, 5th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 391pts, 6th Morpeth Harriers 385pts, 7th Tynedale/Prudhoe 294pts, 8th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 109pts.nd FINAL LEAGUE RESULT (Total Match Points in brackets) 1st Middlesbrough/Houghton/Derwentside 29pts (2393), 2nd Blyth/Alnwick 28pts (2487.5), 3rd Chester Le Street/Durham City 27pts (2354), 4th New Marske 19pts (1861.5), 5th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 16pts (1688), 6th Morpeth Harriers 12pts (1567), 7th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 7pts (1116), 8th Tynedale/Prudhoe 6pts (1146). Morpeth’s Over 50 Veteran Sprinter Trevor Hodgson finished a close second to East Cheshire’s Mike Coogan at the British Masters Track and Field Championships in Derby.
Trevor clocked 11.69s to Coogan’s winning time of 11.64s but in qualifying had run a season's best of 11.62s, also an age group record, previously set by the legendary Steve Peters in 2007. Although another gold medal would be welcome to Trevor, he still remains upbeat as he faces another big challenge ahead of him, at the World Masters Championships, being held in Gothenburg, Sweden at the end of August. Third place went to Southern Counties Veteran, Joshua Wood, who posted 11.89s. Hodgson is currently ninth in the world in his age group for the 100m, if non-wind-assisted times were included, he would actually be sixth. A warm and breezy Sunday morning saw the annual running of the Alnwick Harriers-organised Northumberland Coastal Run, with over 350 runners completing the course, surely one of the most scenic in the country, along the coast from Beadnell to Alnmouth. And there were victories for the club in both Men’s and Women’s races, with Andrew Lawrence, in his first ever run over the course, the overall winner in a time of 1 hour 21 minutes 3 seconds for the 14-mile course. Lawrence had been helped for much of the way by a previous race winner, club companion Ian Harding, who took the race out to well over half way and finished 2nd in 1:22:22, with a visitor from South Yorkshire, Thomas Shaw of Worksop Harriers, 3rd in 1:23:28. In a race she has very much made her own, and finishing this year 10th overall in a time of 1:32:48, Jane Hodgson was once again 1st Female, completing yet another victory to add to a remarkable list that goes all the way back to 2017 – some five victories in total, a record one imagines that is unlikely to be challenged in the foreseeable future. Claremont Road Runner Sarah Kerr was 2nd Female in 1:38:04 and Heaton Harrier Ellie Reed 3rd in 1:39:40. There was further success for Morpeth with Tayla Douglass 5th Female in 1:48:19, Anna Wright 2nd Over 40 in 1:48:47 and training companion Jane Kirby likewise 2nd O/50 in 1:53:18. Meanwhile evergreen veteran Gavin Bayne, who will be travelling to the World Masters Championships in Gothenburg in August, warmed up by coming home 27th overall but 1st O/65 in 1:41:27. (There was further good news for Gavin the following week with news he’d been selected for England in the 2025 International Representative Masters in 2025.) John Clark was the club’s final finisher, sneaking in under two hours (1:59:32) in 113th place. Numbers across the event seemed markedly down, however, with places still available the week before the race – a big change from the days when it was a rapid sell-out, although spiralling costs have probably put some people off, one imagines. For full results and more pictures visit the Alnwick Harriers website. Andrew Lawrence crosses the finishing line 49th Snowdon Race The previous day saw the challenging 49th Snowdon Race, the Castell Howell International Ras Yr Wyddfa taking runners all the way from Llanberis to the summit of the highest mountain in Wales and back in an event the organisers rightly describe as ‘one of Europe’s toughest endurance challenges.’ Not to be deterred, there were some 461 finishers which included many of the best hill runners from across the Home Counties with a visiting team from Italy also. Morpeth’s Macs were once again prominent, with Catriona picking up another Scotland vest and completing the race in 1 hour 26 minutes 54 seconds as Scotland’s 2nd counter behind fastest Female back, teammate Naomi Lang (1:15:48). Meanwhile Alistair had a remarkable run to finish ahead of everyone in his age category as 1st O/60 in 1:38:36 and 123rd overall. Not to miss out on the family outing, a determined Margaret also completed in 2:43:09. Fastest time of the day was by Joe Steward representing England, an extraordinary 1 hour 5 minutes and 41 seconds – can you even get the train up and down that fast? Wanda Diamond League, London
Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard were both involved in Diamond League action in London at the weekend, taking part in the elite 3000 metre Men’s race. Won by Swiss Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu in 7:27:68, Scott was first back in 16th, finishing in a new pb of 7:42:78, which is also a Morpeth club record for the distance. Rory was 19th in 7:56:52, also a pb. Veteran Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson won the Over 50 Men’s 100m title at the Scottish Outdoor Championships in Dundee.
Hodgson clocked a time of 11.86s, which although was a little adrift of his actual personal best of 11.5s, was still enough to win him another prized Gold Medal for his efforts. He is expecting to compete in the World Masters Championships in late August in Gothenburg, Sweden. |
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