morpeth athletes in good form at grand prix

Eighteen athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in action at the third North East Grand Prix meeting held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on 12 June.
Thankfully, although there was a bit of chill in the air, the event was not subject to the deluge of rain, which had seen the postponement of almost all of the field events, and a couple of hurdle events, at the previous meeting at the end of May.
Under 17 Woman specialist thrower Alexandria Hodgson was in superb form in the Hammer, producing figures of 46.72m, which was just slightly adrift of her personal best.
Those figures easily saw her win her age group competition.
Another Morpeth athlete in action in the throws cage was Under 20 Man Edward Gardiner, who threw 42.47m in the Discus.
The main event of the evening on the track was the A Race of the Mile, which was run for the Stan Long Trophy.
Five Morpeth Harriers were amongst the line up, and James Tilley proved to be the best of these, finishing fourth in a strong run in, posting a time of 4m18.44s.
The other four Morpeth finishers were, Elliot Kelso (8th) 4m20.99s, Joe Dixon (9th) 4m22.70s, Bertie Marr (10th) 4m22.71s, and Sam Hancox (14th) 4m28.26s.
Three Morpeth Harriers were lined up in the B Race, and Mark Banks was unlucky not to win here, just losing out to Under 17 Gateshead Harrier Alfie Cook, after making most of the pace throughout.
Banks was rewarded by him recording a new personal best however, with figures of 4m32.66s, taking almost eight seconds off his previous figures, set in 2022.
Other Morpeth runners competing in the Mile B Race were Under 17 Men Oliver Tomlinson and Harry Armstrong, who finished twelfth and fifteenth in respective times of 4m42.28s, and 4m49.17s.
In the fourth fastest Mile Race, Morpeth’s Holly Lawrence finished tenth, posting a finishing time of 5m17.14s.
Emma Tomlinson and Heidi Wilkinson of Morpeth Harriers finished seventh and eleventh in the fifth fastest miles, posting respective times of 5m32,61s, and 5m43.89s.
In the sixth fastest Mile Race, Morpeth’s Zoe Tomlinson and Charlotte Marshall finished sixth and fourteenth, in times of 5m54.97s, and 6m46.09s.
There were two personal bests achieved by Morpeth Harriers Ben Harding and Jason Dawson in the third fastest 400m.
Ben finished third in 57.52s, and Jason finished eighth in 60.56s.
Last, but certainly not least, Triple Jumper Charlotte Earl stepped up to the plate by competing in the fifth fastest 100m event, finishing fifth in 13.45s.

* Morpeth Harriers Under 20 Throws specialist Edward Gardiner threw a massive new personal best of 45.32m in the Discus competition at the Northern Inter Counties Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday.
The club's other thrower in action was Alexandria Hodgson, and she threw 44.68m to finish second in the Intermediate Girls Hammer, to North Yorkshire’s Ella McIntosh.