The British trials for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, to be held in the Pyrenees in September, took place in the Lakes over the weekend, with an uphill only race at Skiddaw on Friday night followed by an up and down race at Whinlatter Forest on the Sunday.
 
The Whinlatter Forest race took place over a two lap course and a total of some 14 kilometres, and included some 750 metres of climbing, and saw Morpeth’s Lawrence McCourt feature in a very competitive field.
 
Won by Lothian Running Club’s Moray Pryde in a time of 57 minutes 11 seconds, just ahead of Jacob Adkin of Moorfoot (who had won Friday night’s race), McCourt finished in a fine 5th place in a time of 58:11.
 
After a challenging workout in some sweaty weather, Lawrence faces an anxious wait to see if he makes the championships next month as a reserve.
 
Running in the same race, Catriona Macdonald also had a great run and finished in 7th place in 1:12:52, and was first counter for a Scotland team who took a team Silver behind hosts England.
 
Aldershot’s Nancy Scott took the women’s title in 69:07 with Black Coombe’s Katherine Maltby 2nd in 70:38.
 
Cat’s performance was all the more remarkable in that she had previously also taken part in Friday night’s uphill race, finishing 9th and 4th runner for Scotland in a time of 51:27, with fellow Scot Kirsty Dickson recording the fastest female time of 45:49.
 
On a great weekend for Scottish vests, their Men taking the team Gold on Sunday, the race was won by over a minute by Jacob Adkin in 37:44.
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Under 15 Girl Sophie Pledger ended her track season in excellent style, when she took the gold medal in the 300m at the Scottish Age Group Championships, held at Aberdeen Sports Village on Saturday.
She ran the fastest overall time of 42.46s in order to qualify for the final, which she won in an almost identical time.

Producing a time of 11.98s, Over 50 Masters Man Trevor Hodgson finished second to Northern Master Mike Coogan in his age group 100m at the England Masters Inter Counties Track and Field Championships held at York on Sunday, where the weather was good and the overall standard very high.
In the Over 50 Masters 400m, Morpeth’s Ben Harding finished third, as first Over 55, producing a time of 57.31s.
Gavin Bayne finished third in the Over 70 Masters 1500m, producing a time of 5m31.84s, placing him 4th on Power of 10 for 2025.
Gavin also competed in the 800m (largely against different runners), finishing fourth in a season’s best of 2m51.70s.
Next week he takes on the BMA 5000m at Nuneaton.
Both Harding and Hodgson also lined up in a North East Masters 4 x 100m squad who finished fifth in 60.51s.

Under 15 Boy Charlie Townsend had an excellent day’s competition at Sunday’s Shildon Open in a sun-drenched venue.
In the 100m, he finished second in the third fastest race, where he produced a personal best time of 12.65s.
Later in the day, he finished fourth in the third fastest 200m in 26.11s and equalled his personal best figures of 4.65m, which placed him second in his age group.

The sixth and final North East Grand Prix meeting was held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on the evening of Wednesday 13 August.
Seven Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the event, and Bertie Marr (800m), and William Hodgson (200m) were star performers, as they claimed respective individual wins.
In the second fastest 800m event, Marr was a convincing victor, as he produced a season’s best time of 1m57.79s.
Hodgson in the 200m, was very pleased, as the Under 17 Man produced a personal best time of 23.95s, as he took victory in the second fastest heat.
Another excellent Morpeth performer in the 200m, was Charlie Townsend, who set new figures of 25.61s, as he finished second in the third fastest heat.
Townsend also won the Under 15 Boys Long Jump, producing a best of 4.28m.
In the fastest 800m, Josh Fiddaman finished third, producing a season’s best of 1m53.15s.
Morpeth Harriers Under 17 siblings Thomas and Molly Roche were also in 800m action.
Thomas finished second in the fifth fastest 800m, producing new figures of 2m20.50s.
In the sixth fastest 800m, Molly finished seventh, producing a time of 2m31.16s.
Rounding off the Morpeth performances was Under 17 Woman Charlotte Marshall, who placed tenth in the seventh fastest 800m, producing a time of 2m49.68s.

Near perfect conditions for racing over an improved out-and-back course on Newcastle Quayside saw some very fast times recorded by those taking part in the RunThrough Quayside 5 and 10k races, with the 5k won in a time of 13 minutes 41 seconds by Olympic marathon runner Ben Connor of Derby AC with Brogan Wallace winning the women’s race in 15:56.
 
For Morpeth, Carl Avery was first back, 4th overall and 2nd O/35 in 14:30. Behind Carl, there was a whole string of fast times, and it was especially good to see Olly Calvert back in competitive action, clocking 15:14 in 18th place as 2nd U/17.

Elsewhere, Tom Prentice was 45th in 15:54, Andy Lawrence 76th in 16:30, Tom Innes 82nd in 16:33, Lee Cuthbertson 84th in 16:39, James Dixon 118th in 17:09, Shaun Land 132nd in 17:30, Poppy Buck 16th female finisher in 18:44 and Gavin Bayne 1st O/70 in 19:40.

There were also two further category wins, this time by Morpeth youngsters, with Heidi Wilkinson running 18:41 to win the U/13 category and Charlotte Marshall 21:18 to win the U/17s.
 
It certainly proved to be a successful night for the Marshall family, with Connor going on to take the inaugural, two-lap 10k that followed in impressive style with a gun to tape victory in 31:48. Caitlin Murdoch recorded the fastest woman’s time of 39:46.
 
Full link to results here: Quayside 5k & 10k - 6 August 2025

 The England Age Group Athletics Championships took place over three days in Birmingham recently, and there was a splendid and well-deserved medal for Morpeth’s Alexandria Hodgson in the Women’s Under 20 Hammer with a best throw of 49 metres 54 centimetres.
 
Her Bronze medal, in front of a delighted coach Neil Ellerby (pictured) is a well-deserved reward for the many hours of dedicated training she continues to put in both at Morpeth (where many of us will have seen her solitary Saturday morning sessions) and elsewhere. 

Having turned 70 this summer, 2025 is shaping up to be another highly successful year for evergreen Gavin Bayne, with a whole string of recent top notch performances at middle distance and above that have seen him record times placing him near or at the top of the UK rankings for his age category.
 
Over the mile, he now holds the fastest time of the year for the roads of 6 minutes 13 seconds (into a headwind in the DK Mile at Blyth) as well as the fourth fastest on the track of 6:02.4 (on the same evening he also ran a competitive 800m an hour later, recording 2:52.5).
 
Again running at Jarrow, in the NEMAA Grand Prix a fortnight later, he set a UK O/70 best of 11 minutes 34 seconds over 3000m, smashing the existing time to set a new NEMAA record into the bargain.
 
Last Wednesday night’s RunThrough Quayside 5k saw him well under the 20-minute mark with a chip time of 19:40, comfortably winning his category on the night by over three minutes and placing third on the UK list.
 
June had seen him exchange the blue and white of Morpeth for an England Masters vest in the AJ Bell Great North 10k, with another excellent clocking of 40:24 over the twisty and turny town centre course that put him fifth in the rankings.
 
His next target will be representing the North East in the Inter Counties Track and Field at York on Saturday, along with another of our leading vets, Trevor Hodgson.
 
Later in the year, he will be joining a handful of other Harriers at the European Masters in Madeira, where he aims to be competing over 10k and the half-marathon, before targeting the BMAF Championships to be held on the Town Moor in November.