ed and alexandria secure place in schools final

Several Morpeth Harriers were in action at the Northern Schools Inter Counties Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday 17 June.

The competition is the final steppingstone for the English Schools Championships, which this year will be held in Birmingham over the weekend of 30 June and 1 July.

Specialist throwers Edward Gardiner and Alexandria Hodgson, both of them coached by Neil Ellerby, are known to have secured their places in the finals.

Gardiner eventually won his selection for Birmingham on Saturday, with his final throw in the Senior Boys Discus competition, in pretty arduous conditions, being forced to go through an hour's delay in starting on the back field. He threw an excellent 41.30m, his best ever effort with the 1.75k discus to gain the entry standard.

Hodgson finished second to Cumbria’s Millie McQueen in the Junior Girls Hammer competition, but had done enough in the previous week's County Championships to earn her place at the National Finals.

Hodgson threw 34.45m, to McQueen’s winning throw of 35.22m, both girls being well adrift of their best performances. She also competed in the Discus, finishing fourth with a best of 21.02m.

Running as a Senior Boy, Liam Roche won the Intermediate Boys 1500m in 4m09.30s from Gosforth Harrier Ethan Bond (4m13.1s), with Morpeth club colleague Bertie Marr finishing third in 4m14.5s. Oliver Tomlinson finished tenth in 4m31.1s.

Also running as a Senior Boy, Joe Dixon repeated his County Schools performance from the previous week, when winning the Intermediate Boys 3000m in 9m03.2s, albeit a little slower this time round. Morpeth Intermediate Boy Elliot Kelso finished third in 9m13.6s.

Morpeth's Amelia Hamlin won the Intermediate Girls 300m in 43.5s, and another Intermediate Girl winner from the club was Victoria Hodgson, elder sister of Alexandria, who secured victory in the 300m Hurdles in 47.3s. Hodgson also finished second in the 80m Hurdles in 12.8s.

In the Intermediate Boys 800m, Joseph Close finished a very close second to Cumbrian Senior Boy James Bowen. Close posted a time of 2m01.1s, which was equal to the winner’s time.

In the Intermediate Boys 400m Hurdles, Morpeth’s Ben Hope finished third in 63.1s.

Morpeth’s Amy Longstaff finished fourth in the Intermediate Girls 100m second heat of three, and her time of 13.5s was eleventh fastest overall.

Having her first taste of Schools Inter County competition, Junior Girl Abigail Kahn finished eighth in the Long Jump, with a best of 4.12m.

In the overall competition, Northumberland finished second behind North Yorkshire, only losing out by nine points.