morpeth are first past the post at gosforth park

The Morpeth squad at Gosforth Park

Gosforth Park staged the annual Norman Woodcock Relays on Sunday morning.

Raced along the road that runs around the inside of the race track, a distance of some 1.66 miles, the event is now a mixed relay for teams of three that must include at least one woman, a format that has replaced the traditional straight race which, historically, has been won by all the big names of North East Athletics, including Mike Mcleod, Brendan Foster and Steve Cram.
 
This time Morpeth were delighted to pick up the team prize for the first time in a while, coming home 1st in a time of 25 minutes and 38 seconds, only four seconds ahead of long-term leaders Heaton Harriers with Tyne Bridge 3rd in 25:44.
 
In his first relay outing, a nervous Liam Ramsay nevertheless had a fine run to clock 8:25 for 6th place and giving the two ahead of him something to chase after.
 
Poppy Buck moved the team up three places with the day’s third fastest female time of 9:10 to hand on to last leg runner Tom Balsdon.
 
Back from a long spell out with injury, Tom executed his run perfectly, clocking the day’s fastest time of 8:03 and only taking the lead in the last one hundred metres for a greatly enjoyed win.
 
The club’s Senior B outfit of Andriy Volkov ((9:35), Robyn Bennett (9:39) and O/40 Dave Stabler (8:41) were 12th overall, with Dave clocking the 3rd fastest O/40 time of the day.
 
The O/40 team of Richard Glennie (9:55), Sophie Ward (11:12) and O/50 Jason Dawson (9:21) also ran well, finishing 29th, with Elswick, for whom Justina Heslop ran the day’s 2nd fastest female time, picking up the overall prize.
 
There was however also a prize for the club’s Over 60s team of David Nicholson (10:53), Pam Woodcock (14:11) and Neil MacAnany (10:16), who finished 2nd to a Guy Bracken led North Shields Polytechnic Harriers. Neil’s was the 2nd fastest O/60 time of the day.
 
Always an enjoyable day at the races, some 87 teams in total finished. 

Tom Balsdon and Poppy Buck with the Norman Woodcock trophy