NECAA TRACK & FIELD MEETING 1 MORPETH The tentative return to competitive athletics continued once again in the North East when the Morpeth track at KEVI hosted the first of a series of graded meetings under strict UKA Covid-19 guidance on Sunday 23rd August 2020. Despite events being limited to graded heats in the 100m and 800m events on the track with the Long Jump, Hammer and Shot Putt in the field, there were still smiles on faces at opportunities for competition finally beginning to open up. A breezy morning saw a mixture of veterans (Conrad Franks, Sparrow Morley, Greg Penn and Tommy Brannen) along with some teenage tyros, as well as athletes who had travelled from as far south as Leeds and as far north as the Scottish borders to take part. There were some thirteen 100m heats in all, fastest time of the day coming from an athlete who’d travelled over a hundred miles to compete, Joe Ferguson of Leeds City winning in 10.65 seconds with Morpeth’s 400m specialist Matty Waterfield clocking 11s dead in third place behind Gateshead’s Scott Hall. David Storey was 3rd in his heat in 11. 62s but Over 40 Phil Pitt recorded a winning time of 11.88s and was 1st in his category. U/20 Jess Young-Rogers ran a personal best of 12.33s in heat 9 as did U/15 Ellie Wickens in heat 3 (13.73s). Meanwhile, in her 1st 100m for three years, Kirsty Lang clocked 13.93s. One of the best 800m races featured Morpeth teenagers Bertie Marr and Ryan Davies, who have both trained assiduously under the guidance of coach Mike Bateman over the Summer months. The Morpeth pair took it out early and completed a fine one-two, with both clocking pbs, Bertie’s 2 minutes 12.67s – nearly a full six seconds off his previous best – and Ryan 2:16:11. Joe Dixon finished 2nd in his heat, also running a big new pb of 2:20:77 and, in his first race in a Morpeth vest, Joseph Close also ran a pb of 2:21:57. Among seniors running, it was good to see 400m hurdles specialist Nisha Desai competing again for Morpeth under the watchful eyes of proud parents Vina and Hemant, Nisha clocking 2:14:59. Ricky Stafford ran his first ever competitive 800m, coming home first in his heat in 2:23:31. Leading O/40 Zoe Doyle of Wycombe Phoenix, who has made use of the Morpeth track to train while on a family holiday in the county and is currently at the top of the Power of 10 rankings for her age category, clocked 2:18:14 in her heat. Perhaps the most impressive time of the day, however, was run by Gateshead Harrier David Race in the 13th and final 800m, the U/17 athlete recording a highly impressive 1:55:23.
Longest jump of the day was by Liam Reveley of Blaydon (6.40 metres) with Gateshead’s Lucy Turner recording 5.56m. Furthest distance thrown in the Shot Putt was by U/20 James Wordsworth of NSP with an impressive 15.29m with Sophie Littlemore of Gateshead recording an equally strong 13.32m. The women’s hammer also featured a quality competition, with U/17s Grace McDonald of Middlesbrough AC and Morpeth’s Jess Gardiner closely matched in the new hammer cage. On the day, McDonald had the edge with a best of 48.70 m ahead of Gardiner’s 45.45m. Longest throw of the day came courtesy of U/17 Border Harrier Damon King with 49.14m, while Morpeth U/15 Georgia Turner threw a pb of 28.39m, two metres further than her previous best. The next meeting in the NECAA series will take place on Sunday 6th September, with a wider range of events. Information is on the NECAA website. WANDA DIAMOND LEAGUE Laura Weightman continued her fine run of form with a storming second place in the women’s 1500m at the Bauhaus-Galan Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on Sunday 23rd August 2020. In a race where all eyes were on Scot Laura Muir in her first race over the distance this year, Weightman came through in typically gutsy fashion on the last lap ahead of such rivals as Kenyan Hellen Obiri (who had won the 5000m the previous weekend) and American Shannon Rowbury. Muir recorded a world leading time of 3:57:86 with Weightman running her 4th fastest ever for the distance of 4;01:62. Fellow Brit Melissa Courtney-Bryant made it a 1-2-3 with a pb in third place. DALTON PARK 10K Road racing of a different, socially distanced nature, resumed at Dalton Park on Sunday 23rd August, with limited numbers of athletes (only 150) being set off in groups of six every five minutes – perhaps the shape of things to come for the foreseeable future. First home on the day was Ross Floyd in a time around the 32 minute mark. He commended the organisation, but did note that he recorded the distance as only 9,800 metres… Despite the Coronavirus epidemic still being very much around us, Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman, in what should have been another Olympic year for her, ran an excellent personal best, when finishing a superb third to Kenya’s Helen Obiri, in the Women’s 5000m, at the Wanda Diamond League meeting, held in Monaco on Friday evening.(14th August)
Weightman clocked 14m35.44s, taking just over nine seconds off her previous best. Obiri won in 14m22.12s, which although was four seconds outside her personal best, was a meeting record, and puts her at the head of the current World rankings, in what is obviously a very sparse year. Scotswoman Eilish McColgan finished seventh, posting a seasons best of 14m57.35s. In second place in the race ahead of Weightman, was Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey, who posted 14m26.57s. Following a week that had seen high profile cancellations of both the London Marathon (for all but elite athletes) and the whole of the Kielder Marathon weekend, competitive athletics action made a return to the North East at long last on Saturday afternoon 8th August) with the staging of a three way match between athletes from Morpeth Harriers, Blyth Running Club and North Shields Polytechnic Harriers. Held at the Morpeth track under strict UK Athletics Covid-19 guidance, competition was limited to sprint hurdles, distances from 100m– 400m, discus, shot and hammer, for some 70 athletes only, most of whom were juniors taking part in graded events. With the whole area carefully demarcated into separate zones for athletes, parents/ spectators, and officials, and rigorous routines in place for handwashing and social distancing, it was certainly a very different experience for all present. Social distancing meant that athletes were unable to run in adjacent lanes, so for all distances over 100m there could only be three in each race, while throwers were faced with the need to repeatedly sanitise and clean equipment. Nevertheless, with the sun shining and a light breeze making for near perfect conditions, there were smiles on the faces of participating athletes, parents, coaches and officials at the resumption of some form of competition after a full four months of lockdown with all involved delighted at the opportunity given. The outstanding performance of the meeting was by Senior Man Craig Charlton, Scottish Indoor Champion, in the Shot Putt with a personal best of 16.93m which keeps him in third place in the UK rankings. Under 20 James Wordsworth of NSP, last year's English Schools Athletics Association U17 Discus Champion, also threw a PB of 15.12m and then another PB in the Discus of 46.54m. Edward Gardiner (U15) of Morpeth, threw a Discus PB of 28.08m, and not to be outdone big sister Jessica (U17) threw well in both Discus (32.88m) and Hammer (44.02m), falling just short of her PBs. It was an exciting afternoon for Morpeth’s Amy Lott (U17) as she recorded a massive PB of 37.13m in the Hammer. She also ran PBs in the 200m (27.3s) and 100m (13.2s). She is the Scottish 60m Hurdle Champion and ranked fifth in the UK, but moved up to try the U20W 100m Hurdles for the first time ever. She ran 15.5s - just 0.2s outside the ESAA qualifier for next summer. Fastest times of the day were run by Matthew Waterfield of Morpeth, last season's ESAA 400m Champion. Looking in good shape despite the absence of competition, Matthew recorded 11.3s in the 100m and 22.7s in the 200m. The fastest lady on the track was Senior Woman Jessica Young-Rogers, also of Morpeth, with 12.8s for the 100m and 25.9s for the 200m, just outside her PB. Also in the senior ranks there were PBs for both Lynsey Storey and Laura Kincaid in the 100m. Showing that it wasn’t all just about the youngsters meanwhile, veteran Over 45 sprinter Trevor Hodgson ran a very good 12.8s for 100m, thirty odd years after competing for the last time, when he had run 11.0 s. In their first ever meeting, U17s Evan Logan and Tom Wales did well for the club in both the 100m and 200m, with Logan recording 12.4s and 25.5s, and Wales 13.0s and 25.7s. Charlie Lane recorded a 200m of 25.0s and a 400m of 55.2s, both PBs. Fastest times of the day were run by Matthew Waterfield of Morpeth, last season's ESAA 400m Champion. Looking in good shape despite the absence of competition, Matthew recorded 11.3s in the 100m and 22.7s in the 200m. The fastest lady on the track was Senior Woman Jessica Young-Rogers, also of Morpeth, with 12.8s for the 100m and 25.9s for the 200m, just outside her PB. Also in the senior ranks there were PBs for both Lynsey Storey and Laura Kincaid in the 100m. Showing that it wasn’t all just about the youngsters meanwhile, veteran Over 45 sprinter Trevor Hodgson ran a very good 12.8s for 100m, thirty odd years after competing for the last time, when he had run 11.0 s. In their first ever meeting, U17s Evan Logan and Tom Wales did well for the club in both the 100m and 200m, with Logan recording 12.4s and 25.5s, and Wales 13.0s and 25.7s. Charlie Lane recorded a 200m of 25.0s and a 400m of 55.2s, both PBs. U15 Reuben Moss recorded a massive PB in the 100m of 13.3s and then another in the 200m of 28.1s. U15s Ellie Wickens and Victoria Hodgson both ran 13.8s for the 100m.
In the U15G 75m Hurdles Hannah Lott, last season's Scottish U13 Champion, and Saveena Mullin, only U13, both ran the U15 Hurdles for the first time ever, recording respectable times of 15.5s and 13.9s, to go to Power of 10. Credit for the whole day is especially due to Morpeth track and field coach Dave Thomas, without whose tireless efforts and dedication – not least in dealing with a veritable Everest of paperwork for track and trace – the meeting would never have gone ahead. Morpeth Over 65 Masters Gavin Bayne and Dave Nicholson put in a decent shift at the track on Saturday when a breezy early afternoon saw both comfortably clocking very competitive age-related sub 20 minute times.
With Bayne only deciding to give it a go mid-morning (having already put some early morning miles in) and originally talking of only completing some of the distance, and Nicholson out of his preferred off-road habitat, both athletes were perhaps a little nervous as they settled down for the start of the 12 and a half laps. However, Bayne was soon into an almost metronomic rhythm, and able to tick off near identical 90 second laps, and with the bit between his teeth never looked likely to drop out. Nicholson meanwhile stuck gamely to his task despite a gap between the two starting to open up after lap 3. In the event, Bayne managed to just dip under the 19 minute mark for a 18:59 clocking while Nicholson finished not too far behind in 19:21. Both athletes professed themselves delighted with their runs and, like so many others, only disappointed that there were no competitive opportunities for them on the horizon. ![]() Congratulations to Bob Appleby on correctly identifying the July Picture Quiz as Eddie Hedley our Senior Sprints Coach. The picture was taken in the Borders, possibly Melrose or Selkirk, when Eddie competed as a highly accomplished professional sprinter himself. Our August picture (above) was taken at the 1969 UK Inter Counties Track & Field Championships.
The scene is the Men’s 5000m, we want you please to identify the race leader (No 20), who eventually went on to become a highly accomplished GB distance specialist, and became a very influential figure in the sport in later life. At the same time, only for interest, if anyone could please identify the third or fourth placed North East Counties competitor, we would appreciate your help in that. |
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