morpeth third in tight season opener

Just 28 points divided the top five teams in the first Northern Athletics North East Premier match of 2023 held at Morpeth’s KEVI Athletics Track on Saturday.
For their part, Morpeth Harriers, the day's hosts, finished an equal third with Darlington Harriers, behind winners Gateshead Harriers, who managed to defend a late challenge from New Marske Harriers.
The combined team of Chester Le Street/Durham were a close fifth, but well ahead of North Shields Poly, who earned an early wooden spoon.
A lot of strength in the Morpeth performance came from the Men’s events, where they had no less than three double victories in Track events.
Connor Marshall won the 800m A Race, and Under 20 athlete Bertie Marr took the B race.
Respective times were 2m02.5s, and 2m04.4s, both just outside their personal bests.
Moving up to the 1500m, Alex Brown took the A race in 3m59.8s, and Mark Banks won the B Race in 4m19.8s.
Later Brown also took the A Race of the 5000m in 15m45.0s, whilst Alistair Douglass took the B Race in 16m25.5s, in what was his first ever time in the distance on the track.
Banks claimed his second win on the day, when he cleared 1.65m to win the High Jump, and he also finished third in the B race of the 200m in 26.5s, partnering the returning Sean O’Hara, who finished fourth in the A race in 23.9s.
O’Hara, who had not competed individually since 2019, did well to finish third in the 100m A race in 11.9s, being partnered in the B race by Over 50 Veteran, who superbly clocked a season’s best of 12.3s, when finishing second in the B race.
Team Manager Mark Snowball added his support to the Morpeth team, when finishing second in the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase in 11m49.6s, and fourth in the 400m Hurdles in 77.0s.
Snowball also finished fourth in the B string Long Jump with 3.91m, partnering Hans Paulsen’s A String effort of 4.44m, which saw him finish fifth.
Paulsen also finished fifth in the A string Triple Jump with 9.06m, and also fifth in the Javelin A string with a personal best of 23.31m.
Over 50 Veteran Jason Dawson secured more points for Morpeth when finishing second in the Javelin B string with 22.33m.
Unfortunately, Morpeth were missing their specialist thrower Hayden Richards, who was absent for personal reasons.
In the Men’s 4x100m Relay, Morpeth finished third, courtesy of Sean O’Hara, Trevor Hodgson, Hans Paulsen, and Anthony Liddle, posting a time of 47.8s.
Mark Banks, Liam Roche, Alistair Douglass, and Connor Marshall combined to bring the Morpeth Men’s 4 x 400m squad home in second place in 3m45.6s.
The Women’s track events saw Nisha Desai emerge as the only Morpeth winner, posting a time of 63.6s in the 400m Hurdles.
However, there was good support in the Women’s sprints, where Under 20 athlete Mia Belton finished second in both the 100m and 200m A strings, posting respective times of 13.4s and 27.6s.
B String support in both of these events came from Ellie Wickens, who clocked 14.3s and 29.2s respectively.
Caitlin Flanagan finished second in the A Race of the 800m in 2m32.4s, and Tayla Douglass was second in the B Race in 2m55.8s.
Morag Stead and Tayla also combined in the Women’s 1500m, where Stead finished third in the A string in 5m11.4s, and Douglass finished third in the B string in 6m06.1s.
On to the Women’s Field Events, where Charlotte Earle and Olivia Gent produced superb results for Morpeth in both the Long and Triple Jumps.
Earl won both the Long Jump (5.10m), and Triple Jump (11.27m) A Strings, and Gent was second in the B string of the Long Jump with 3.98m and won the B string Triple Jump with 9.12m.
Claire Reid did her usual share of the work in the throw’s events, finishing second in the A String Shot Putt (9.39m), third in the A string Discus (27.97m), and fourth in the A string Hammer (23.64m).
Olivia Gent finished third in the B string Shot Putt (5.49m), Vina Desai was second in the B string Discus (12.74m), and also third in the B string Hammer (15.00m).
In the Women’s Javelin, Nisha Desai threw 19.83m to finish fourth in the A string, with Olivia Gent finishing second in the B string with 15.55m.
Morpeth Women’s 4 x 100m Relay squad finished second, courtesy of Nisha Desai, Ellie Wickens, Olivia Gent, and Charlotte Earl in a time of 54.1s.

FINAL MATCH RESULT
1st Gateshead Harriers 297.5pts, 2nd New Marske 283pts, 3rd = Morpeth Harriers 275pts,
3rd = Darlington Harriers 275pts, 5th Chester Le Street/ Durham City 269.5pts, 6th North Shields Poly 168pts.