English Schools Track & Field Championships

Andrew Knight (left) representing Northumberland at the English Schools Track & Field Championships on Friday 13th July.

Morpeth Harrier Andrew Knight, clearly emerged as one of Northumberland’s star performers at the annual New Balance sponsored English Schools Track and Field Championships, which were held over two days at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th July 2018.

Knight was one of only three Northumberland medallists over the two days,
and Morpeth Harriers only individual medallist.
The Paul Reed coached athlete really enjoyed a close encounter
with Warwickshire’s Lewis Byng, in the Intermediate Boys Shot Putt,
who is No 1 in the UK for his age group, and there were certainly encouraging
signs for success, as Knight held the lead following the first round of Putt’s.
Eventually Byng managed to put in a mammoth 17.69m to seal the Gold Medal,
whilst Knight’s 16.87m saw him easily clinch Silver, and this added to his Indoor Gold earlier this year,
makes for a fantastic achievement indeed, that richly deserves reward.

Considering Knight has spent a period on the side-lines recently with a
Hamstring injury, he performed extremely well, and above all, consistently.

That rich reward mentioned earlier, sees Knight representing England at the Schools International
at Grangemouth in Scotland this weekend, where he will compete
against the best of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

Rory Leonard and Kieran Hedley of Morpeth Harriers, made it through to the final
of the Senior Boys 1500m on Saturday, following their Friday efforts of 3m56.80s and 3m57.22s,
which saw the former finish sixth and fifth respectively in their heats.

Those times ninth and eleventh fastest overall, and Hedley’s 3m56.80s was a new personal best.
In the Final, Leonard finished sixth in 3m57.46s, and Hedley finished a detached twelfth in 4m05.72s
.
Amy Lott of Morpeth qualified for the later run Semi Final of the Junior Girls 75m Hurdles,
by finishing sixth in her first-round heat in 11.49s, which proved to be the sixteenth fastest time
overall of the earlier heats. In her Semi Final she finished eighth in 11.55s,
thus ending her interest in the competition.

In the Intermediate Boys Triple Jump Final, Morpeth’s Ethan Stephenson
found a best of 12.77m, only good for twelfth place.

Unfortunately, a series of disappointing throws, saw Bobbie Griffiths of Morpeth finish
​eleventh in the Senior Girls Javelin, where her best effort proved to be a below par 36.35m.