Brooks Armagh 5K International Road Race

Five Male athletes from Morpeth Harriers competed in the very highly profiled annual Armagh 5k Road Race I
n Northern Ireland, on the evening of Thursday 14th February 2019.

As good conditions prevailed, the Morpeth contingent were led home by Northern Cross Country Silver medallist Carl Avery, who finished in twenty fourth place overall in a total field of 202, posting a new personal best of 14m17s for the distance, which saw him take twelve seconds off his previous best, which had been at Kingsley in the Mid Cheshire event in April 2018, where he had finished seventeenth.

On Thursday, Avery finished thirty-four seconds adrift of Topi Raitanen,
who is a Finnish International, specialising in the 3000m Steeplechase.

Second and third places went to Inverclyde’s Adam Craig, and Wreake
and Soare Valley’s Sam Stabler, who were both clocked at two seconds adrift of the winner.

Under 23 athlete James Young was Morpeth’s second man home, finishing in 46th place,
also setting new figures for himself of 14m29s, his previous best having been 15m13s,
which was a massive improvement on the time he had set at Barrowford in March 2018.

Another Morpeth athlete improving on his previous best was George Lowry, who finished 70th in 14m41s,
his previous best being the 14m42s, he had posted at Kingsley in 2018 along with Avery in the Mid Cheshire event.

Finishing 94th, Joe Armstrong added to the excellent Morpeth performances,
as he posted a personal best of 14m53s, his previous best,
having been the 15m10s in the Croft 5k at Dalton on Tees in December 2018.

Completing the superb Morpeth performances was club newcomer Adam Pratt,
who had triumphed in the previous weeks North Eastern Harrier League meeting at Thornley.

Pratt finished 167th in 15m27s, bettering his previous by an excellent twenty-two seconds,
​that being achieved at Barrowford in December, when he had still been a Tynedale athlete.