MULLER British Athletics Championships

Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman was left feeling very disappointed by her performance in finishing third to Eilish McColgan in the  televised Women’s 5000m Final at the annual British Athletics Championships,
held at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on Sunday 25th August 2019.

Posting a time of 15m36.73s, she was a good forty-five seconds down on her personal best for the distance, which she set in last months Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium in London

Meanwhile McColgan took an easy win in 15m21.38s, having front ran the race most of the way,
to take the much-prized British title, ahead of Blackburn’s Jessica Judd,
who held off a late Weightman challenge, to finish second in 15m35.82s.
McColgan is now a certainty to travel to Doha for next month’s World Championships
and may also be joined by Judd.

Weightman may get in on any discretionary place offered by the team selectors,
if they look at previous form, considering Sunday’s race was run in a very uncomfortable thirty degrees,
which saw four of the twenty declared athletes fail to finish, who included Shildon’s Kate Avery,
and Weightman’s fellow International rival Melissa Courtney of Wales.

New Morpeth acquisition Chris Parr went out in the heats of the Men’s 1500m on Saturday,
where he posted a time of 3m51.05s, finishing sixth in a race won by Edinburgh AC’s Jake Wightman.
Parr’s time was roughly nine seconds down on his personal best.

Another Morpeth Harrier in competitive action at the second day of the championships on Sunday was Shot Putt specialist Craig Charlton, who had won Gold at the previous week’s Scottish Championships at Grangemouth.

Against heavy strong opposition, Charlton finished down in tenth place in the contest, only managing three throws, of which his best effort was 14.64m, finishing slightly ahead of former Morpeth Harrier Andrew Knight (14.12m),
now competing for Southampton AC.

The competition was won by York’s Scott Lincoln, who managed six Putts,
​although three were not scored, his winning Putt being an excellent 19.56m.