Macdonald stars at sunderland 5k

With the easing of lockdown restrictions, road racing in its traditional form returned to the North East last Thursday with the running of the Sunderland 5k, hosted once again by Sunderland Harriers and incorporating this year both the NE and the NCAA Road Championships.
On a cloudy but humid evening the two-lap course around the fishing lakes at the Silksworth Sports Complex again incorporated two separate events, the earlier Women’s and Men Over 50 race, followed half an hour later by the Senior Men and Over 40s.
Morpeth’s Cat Macdonald, now back in the North East after a few years resident in Scotland, recorded an excellent victory by some ten seconds in the women’s race with a time of 17 minutes 28 seconds for the 5k course. Sophie Cowper of Rotherham AC was 2nd in 17m 39s with Molly Pace of Jesmond Joggers 3rd in 18m.
Over 50 veteran Lee Bennett was 3rd overall in 16m 53s in a strong category, with the race won by Darlington Harrier John Clifford in 16m 12s. Behind Bennett, Alistair Macdonald had a good run to finish 28th in 18m 44s behind daughter Cat.  Evergreen Over 65s Gavin Bayne and Dave Nicholson were 44th and 57th respectively with times of 19m 28s and 20m 29s.
Also running were Peter Scaife, 94th in 22m 56s; Jill Bennett, 117th in 25m 42s; and Margaret Macdonald, 125th in 27m 51s.

Cat Macdonald and Anthony Janetta after the Sunderland 5k

The Senior Men’s race was won by Carl Smith of Tyne Bridge Harriers with a strong showing of 14m 42s with Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor 2nd (14m 52s) and Dave Green of North Shields Polytechnic Harriers 3rd (14m 56s).
First home for Morpeth was Ross Floyd, 5th in 14m 58s, with Tom Straughan, in his first outing for a while, 12th in 15m 32s.
Straughan was chased every inch of the way by young Joe Dixon, whose 15m 35s was a big personal best and left Joe with a deserved huge smile on his face.
There were some seven other Morpeth finishers, with Andy Lawrence the best of them in 21st (15m 47s). Behind him, Richard Johnson was 35th in 16m 8s; John Butters 44th in 16m 35s; Mark Snowball, 53rd in 16m 48s; Gary Jones, 61st in 16m 55s; Anthony Janetta, in his first race in Morpeth colours, 75th in 17m 25s; and Eric Adams, 121st in 19m 34s. With alphabetically-ordered numbers, Eric also had the added distinction of having to wear the number ‘1!
The overall feeling of the night, shared by competitors and spectators alike, was one of both joy and relief at the return of road racing without the restrictions that have necessarily been in place for so long, and pleasure in catching up with colleagues and rivals from other North East clubs.

The Morpeth senior men at Sunderland