British Athletics Cross Challenge Meeting

Senior Mens race at Liverpool

Five Morpeth Harriers were in action at the UK Cross Challenge meeting
held at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday 26th November.
Incorporating the European Trials, strong top class fields as expected took part.
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Under 20 and Under 17 Men Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard were undoubtedly the clubs best performers.

Scott Beattie in action at Liverpool

After being always in the top four in a talent filled Under 20 Men’s 6.7k event,
Beattie finished a well accomplished seventh, and only twenty-five seconds adrift
of race winner Alex Yee of Kent AC in field of 118 finishers.
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Beattie can certainly take a great deal of credit and positivity from this performance,
in that he was “one of the best amongst the best”.

Rory Leonard in action at Liverpool

The same can be rightly attributed to Rory Leonard’s performance in the
Under 17 Men’s 5.5k event, where he finished 26th  out of 129 finishers.
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Leonard is still very much in a learning curve and will also take a lot of credit and
experience from the fact that he was very much mixing it with top class opposition.
He was forty-six seconds adrift of race winner Joe Pollard of Charnwood AC.

Carl Avery in action at Liverpool

Life was not so good to Morpeth’s Carl Avery and Emma Holt however.
Both will feel disappointed in that they finished 55th and 56th respectively
in the combined Under 23 and Senior Men’s and Women’s 9.8k and 8.1k events,
however both should bounce back in time for their next outings in the
forthcoming North Eastern Cross Country Championships at Durham.

Avery, fresh from an excellent Sherman Cup victory at South Shields, lost ground as he tried to stay
with the leaders, describing the fact that there was no petrol in the tank when it was needed.
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Fellow Morpeth Harrier Phil Winkler finished 219th in the Men’s event.

Emma Holt in action at Liverpool

Emma Holt, who finished second to club colleague Laura Weightman in the Senior Women’s event at
​South Shields, couldn’t quite get on level terms with a strong set of front runners in the Women’s event at Liverpool,
and will feel that her performance was certainly a little below par, and adrift of what she would have hoped for.

All photos courtesy of Adrian Royle​

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