BMC Grand Prix Meeting

Rory Leonard in action at Sports City

In his first ever track 5000m, Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard finished a very respectable seventh in a total field of twenty two top class athletes, who contested the premier of three Senior Men’s races covering the twelve and a half laps at the BMC Grand Prix Meeting, held at Sports City in Manchester, on the evening of Saturday 25th May 2019.

Leonard certainly locked horns with some of the country’s best, as he clocked a very respectable time
of 14m16.35s, behind Thames Valley’s Petros Surafel, who won in a very fast time of 13m52.79s.

The Morpeth Under 20 athlete can feel well pleased however, as he was by far the leading finisher in his age group ahead of three others, and he now goes firmly to the top of the UK Rankings for his age group, also currently ranking him 27th overall in the UK for the distance.

Another Morpeth Harrier competing in the same race as Leonard was Carl Avery,
who finished tenth in a seasons best of 14m27.81s.

Alex Brown of Morpeth Harriers finished nineteenth in the B Race of the 5000m,
posting a finishing time of 15m24.53s.

James Young of Morpeth Harriers was another club member who excelled on the night, as he produced a new personal best of 3m44.47s in the 1500m A Race, improving on his previous best by just over three seconds, and also a time that sees him ranked currently as 24th in the UK.

He finished a very close second to Preston’s Matthew Wigglesworth, who won in 3m44.03s.
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In the 1500m C Race, Morpeth’s Kieran Hedley finished eleventh, posting a seasons best time of 3m58.37s.

​Mhairi MacLennan, finished third in the Women’s 5000m, where she produced an excellent new lifetime personal best of 15m51.78s, when finishing third to Blackburn’s Jessica Judd (15m39.00s).
MacLennan’s improvement measured eighteen seconds on previous figures.

James Young in action at Sports City