close stars on grand prix opening night

The opening 2022 North East Grand Prix Track and Field Meeting held at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on the evening of Wednesday April 20 saw eighteen athletes from Morpeth Harriers & AC in competitive action in both sprints and distance events, although the club didn’t manage to muster any Field competitors on this occasion.
One of the real stars on a successful track night was Joseph Close, who was making his seasonal debut in the Under 17 Men’s age group.
Competing in the second fastest of seven 1500m heats, Close went to the front in the early stages of his three and three quarter lap event.  However, he only led for a short period before he eventually settled back into third or fourth place but then produced a superb turn up of pace on the final lap to oust early leaders Lee Dover of Houghton and Steve McMahon of Sunderland Harriers.
The Sunderland Veteran quickly succumbed to Close’s youth and determination, and the Morpeth youngster enjoyed a two second margin of victory, producing a new personal best time of 4m20.33s and taking around nine seconds off his previous figures.
Also running in this particular heat from Morpeth was Under 15 Boy Oliver Tomlinson, who finished twelfth but also produced a personal best of 4m 35.27s for the distance, taking eleven seconds off his previous figures.
Another Morpeth Harriers winner over 1500m was Senior Man Alex Brown, who had a close contest with Gosforth Harrier Ethan Bond, with Bond only dropped within the final 100m. Brown won in a time of 3m57.93s with Bond two seconds adrift, and Brown’s performance saw him later judged as the Track Athlete of the Meeting.
Six other Morpeth Harriers faced the starter in the fastest 1500m. Personal best performances were achieved by five Harriers in the race: George Rudman, who finished third in 4m02.26s, a forty two second improvement; Ross Charlton who placed fourth in 4m03.67s, a three second improvement; Connor Marshall, who finished fifth in 4m05.85s, which represented a seven second improvement; Joe Anderson, sixth in a time of 4m06.01s, an improvement of seven seconds, and Will De Vere-Owen,  seventh in 4m06.55s, which saw the Under 17 athlete improve by eleven seconds. Under 17 Bertie Marr also finished twelfth in 4m20.61s to complete the club tally.
Staying with 1500m, Under 20 and Under 17 Women Abi Leiper and Caitlin Flanagan finished twelfth and thirteenth in the fourth fastest race, posting respective times of 5m09.55s, and 5m11.20s, both just outside their personal bests.
However, Under 13 and Under 15 Girls Emma Tomlinson and Molly Roche both improved on their bests in the sixth and seventh fastest races. In the sixth race, Tomlinson, younger sister of Oliver, took a whopping twenty-eight seconds off her time when finishing seventh in 5m 25.77s. Meanwhile in the seventh race, Roche also finished seventh in 5m35.13s, an improvement here of twenty-five seconds.
In the shorter sprint events, Under 15 Boy Connor Phillips produced a good win in the ninth heat of the 150m, a distance he was running for the first time, winning in 18.71s.
He had earlier finished third in the 300m, also running the distance for the first time, where he posted a time of 40.07s, a second adrift of Under 17 winner Noah Scott of Gateshead Harriers.
Another Morpeth first timer over 150m was Under 17 Woman Freya Caygill, who competed well to finish second in her heat in 20.43s.
Senior Man Alistair Douglas was also competing in the 300m for the first time. Douglas finished third in 39.10s, just over a second adrift of heat winner Makun Madar of Durham University.
Under 13 Boy Kyle Phillips, younger brother of Connor, posted a time of 11.43s in the 75m sprint, which he also ran for the first time.
Fellow Under 13 Boy Toby Marr, younger brother of Bertie, produced a marginal personal best of 16.33s in the 75m Hurdles.

Meanwhile, Rachelle Falloon took advantage of an Easter break in Spain to take part in the Magaluf 10k at the weekend. Coming home in 22nd place overall, she won the Women’s race in a time of 38 minutes 44 seconds.
 

Rachel crosses the finish line in Magaluf