north east grand prix, monkton 20th july

The fifth and penultimate NEGP Meeting was held at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium on
Wednesday 20 th July.
A total of twenty-one athletes from Morpeth Harriers were in action on the Track on the
night, and no fewer than sixteen of those athletes achieved new personal bests, on what was a
very cloudy evening, still warm, with just a whisper of wind.
There were also three winning performances from the club.
With three runners in the Field, Charlie Lane held off the close attentions of Thames Valley
Harrier, and former Alnwick Harrier Oliver Telfer, to win the fastest 400m by a fraction of a
second, posting new figures of 51.26s.
In the fourth fastest 400m, Under 15 Boy Daniel Burrow ran his first outing over the distance,
finishing seventh in 63.59s.

Alistair Douglass showed very much the strength of his current form, when he won the fastest
1500m in a season’s best 4m00.35s, almost leading from gun to tape.
Seven other Morpeth Harriers lined up alongside Alistair in the event, six of them producing
new personal best performances.
Connor Marshall finished fifth in 4m01.26s, an improvement here of four seconds.
Almost one second and one place behind Connor, was his Morpeth club colleague Joe
Anderson, who improved by four seconds with his clocking of 4m02.27s.
Two Morpeth Harriers occupied seventh and eighth places in the form of James Tilley and
Matthew Walton, who posted new personal best times of 4m06.65s and 4m08.03s,
improvements of twelve and thirty-five seconds, respectively.
Further back in the field were Will DeVere-Owen, who had a missing pair of spikes problem
shortly prior to his event, Ryan Davies, and Ralph Robson, who finished thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth respectively, posting times of 4m13.26s, 4m13.70s, and 4m14.29s.
For Davies, it was a two second improvement, and Robson can feel delighted with an eleven
and a half second improvement.

In the second fastest 1500m, Under 17 Man Liam Roche can feel well pleased with his
improvement of six seconds, when finishing second, posting a time of 4m17.58s.
Morpeth Under 15 Boy Oliver Tomlinson finished seventh in 4m24.34s, an improvement of
six seconds.
Under 17 Man Elliot Mavir finished eleventh in 4m31.17s, an improvement of nineteen
seconds to previous.
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Morpeth’s Caitlin Flanagan ran superbly in the fourth fastest 1500m, finishing third in
4m53.79s, an improvement of thirteen seconds for the Under 17 Woman, who has been
troubled by niggling injuries of late.
Fellow Under 17 Woman Tabitha Robson, younger sister of Ralph, can also feel well pleased
in finishing tenth in 5m03.22s, an improvement of six seconds here.
Another excellent Morpeth winner on the night was Under 15 Boy Harry Armstrong, who
always looked as if he was going to get into the frame in the fifth fastest 1500m event.
He posted a winning time of 5m01.91s, an improvement of twelve seconds.
Other Morpeth Harriers in this heat were Emma Tomlinson and Molly Roche.
Tomlinson finished ninth in 5m12.95s, an improvement of eight seconds, and Roche finished
thirteenth in 5m34.65s, an improvement by one second.
Molly Roche’s younger brother Thomas, an Under 13 Boy, finished seventh in the sixth heat
in 5m34.48s, an improvement of twenty-five seconds.
Rounding off the evening’s achievements, two Morpeth Harriers were in action in the 100m
events.
In the third fastest of these, Under 20 Woman Mia Belton finished fourth in 13.15s.

Senior Man, Anthony Liddle finished sixth in the fourth fastest 100m, posting a time of
13.66s.