NEMAA Track and Field Championships

Some of our athletes at the 2019 NEMAA Track & Field Championships

On Saturday 22nd June 2019, the annual North East Masters Track and Field Championshipstook place 
at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow, and it was a busy and successful weekend for the club with some eleven
members competing who, between them, won in total, 9 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze medals.

Winners of two gold and one silver apiece were Over 55s Peter Tynemouth and Neil McAnany.
Neil pipped Peter to the gold in the 300m hurdles with times of 52.1s and 54.7s respectively.
Neil also ran a fast 400 metres flat to take the O/55 title in a time of 1m 01.07s.
Peter, meanwhile, also took gold in the 100m hurdles in 19.5s. Both also had success in the jumps,
with Peter winning the Long Jump with a best of 3.84m
and Neil coming 2nd in his category for the Triple Jump with 8.24m.

There was one other success over the shorter distances,
​Paul Bellingham picking up a silver in the O/55 200 metres with a best of 30.0s.

The 800m, 1500m and 5000m were all contested on the same day so spare a thought for Gavin Bayne,
at the top end of the Over 60 category these days, who, despite the inevitable niggles that accompany
the older runner ran in all three! 5th in the 800m, he compensated by picking up a silver in the 1500m
with a time of 5m 26.6s, only losing out to Michael Stacey of Low Fell, and went on to take another in his category
in the 5000m with a time of 20m 23.9s behind Sunderland’s Paul Merrison.
Over 70 Paul Bentley also picked up a silver over the same distance with 25m 05.7s
and Gary Jones, now back with Morpeth, missed out on a medal in the O/40s when, in a tough cat, he finished 4th.

Longstanding member Archie Jenkins showed that, despite being very involved these days with the administrative side of the sport, he has lost none of his desire to compete, and he was rewarded with no less than two golds, taking the O/65 1500m title in 7m.01s and the 800m in 3m 37.1s.

Also competing in both these events were Michelle Thompson and Jason Dawson.
Michelle showed the remarkable progress she has already made under new coach Chris Waugh
since joining the club by taking the O/35 gold in both races, with times of 5m 20.8s and 2m 38.06s.

Jason, meanwhile, had clearly got over the previous weekend’s ‘training’ (for which read ‘imbibing’)
in the Lake District, with a gold in the O/45 1500m (4m 51.4s) and a bronze in the 800m (2m 20.6s).

Finally on the track, evergreen Pam Woodcock picked up a good silver in the O/65 800m in a time of 3m 21.7s, losing out by only a second to Doreen Craig of Blaydon, who has only just moved into the category.
​
Morpeth’s representative in the throws was another club stalwart, Steven Appleby, who picked up Over 45 silver and bronze in the discus and shot respectively. He threw 31.06m in the discus and 7.76m for the shot.

Complete Results