 Photo courtesy of Steve Garrett An on the day victory by a clear margin of nearly 120 points, firmly confirmed Morpeth Harriers band of Young Athletes, both Male and Female, as Division 1 Champions, in their final round North East Youth Development League match, held at the new Middlesbrough Sports Village, on Sunday 19th July 2015. It also meant that the clubs record over the four fixtures had gone undamaged, with them achieving a hundred percent record of match wins. A very close match raged throughout the day, resulting in only 232 points dividing first placed Morpeth Harriers and the bottom placed club Tynedale Harriers, with only 92.5 points dividing the second, third, fourth, and fifth placed clubs. Morpeth Harriers however really turned it up on the day,
despite some of their key athletes being unavailable due to family holidays. Their full day’s achievements were boosted by no less than twenty outright A string victories, further enhanced by twenty two outstanding B string victories. Good efforts came from both genders. In the Male events, the best performances came in the Under 17 age group, and in the Female events, it was the Under 15 age group who dominated. Declan Stoker was a star performer for Morpeth Harriers in the Under 17 Men’s sprints, winning both the 100m and 200m respectively in 12.0s and 24.9s. He also received splendid winning B string support from Mitchell Cryer (13.2s) and debutant Will Aitchison in the 200m (25.7s). Jamie Duguid was a very industrious Under 17 Men’s performer for Morpeth. Running in the 1500m for the first time, he won in a time of 5m00.2s. He finished second in the 800m in 2m23.1s, and a useful third in the A string 400m in 65.1s. In the 400m, he got good B string backing from Mitchell Cryer, who produced new figures of 69.6s, when finishing second. There were some excellent performers amongst the Morpeth Under 17 Men’s Field Event specialists. Charlie Chisholm, competing in the Javelin for the first time, threw a best of 22.59m, which was well backed up by Hugh Weatherton’s win in the B string with 17.63m, again a first time effort in the event. Chisholm also produced a B string win in the Discus with 31.23m, which was a new personal best, giving good backing to Elliot Moore’s A string effort of 31.74m, also a new personal best. Moore also enjoyed a win in the Shot with 11.87m, again a new personal best, and second place in the Hammer, also a new personal best of 28.61m, finishing behind Harrogate’s Tej Mekako, who threw a league record 33.42m. Backing up Moore in the B string Hammer and Shot events for Morpeth was Hugh Weatherton, who won respectively with efforts of 21.35m and 9.35m. The Under 17 Men’s Long Jump saw a win for Morpeth’s David Thomas with his best effort of 5.56m. Mitchell Cryer’s personal best of 4.33m saw him take the B string in support. Thomas also produced 11.86m in the Triple Jump, but could only finish second to Harrogate’s Mekako, who enjoyed his second league record of the day with 12.41m. In the High Jump, which Thomas was attempting for the first time, he cleared 1.55m for second in the A string. Will Aitchison gave excellent B string support for Morpeth, winning with his best clearance of 1.35m. Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Men’s 4 x 100m Relay squad, managed to get the baton round to finish second to Gateshead in 49.7s, just losing out by a mere second. The clubs best Female performers were undoubtedly the Under 15 Girls, with their best results coming from the Field Events, where their throwers were a most dominant force, recording no less than four double victories. Three of those A string victories belonged to Bobbie Griffiths. Two of those were new personal best performances. Perhaps ironically her favoured event, the Javelin, did not give her a personal best, however her best throw of 34.42m was good enough to see her win by nearly a thirteen metre margin. Lottie Hume’s personal best performance of 19.98m, gave Morpeth Harriers a B string victory. In the Under 15 Girls Hammer event, Griffiths did produce a personal best of 23.43m to win the A string by a margin of just over two metres. Another excellent performer in the Hammer was Morpeth’s B string athlete Ellie Burt, who also produced new figures when winning with the second best throw of the contest of 23.14m, not far at all from Griffith’s overall winning effort. Griffith’s achieved her third victory, and second personal best of the day in the Discus, when she hurled 28.09m, giving her nearly a nine metre margin over her closest A string rival. Making her Morpeth Harriers debut, New York, USA born Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot proved a formidable B string partner to Griffiths, when she won with a best of 21.37m. Pickering-Pruvot had her own personal moment of glory, when winning the A string Shot, with a best of 9.70m. Ellie Burt won the B string Shot for Morpeth with her best effort of 8.61m. Best performance in the jumps for Morpeth was produced by Harriet Priest, whose clearance of 1.36m in the High Jump showed an improvement of 1cm, and gave her third A string placement. B string support for Morpeth in this event came from Nadine Arkle, who also finished third with 1.27m. In the Under 15 Girls Long Jump, Hannah Brown produced a personal best of 3.91m in a very competitive A string which saw her finish sixth. Ailsa Jones produced a best of 3.84m for third in the B string. In the Under 15 Girls sprint events, Morpeth performed well. Jessica Young-Rogers won the A string 100m in13.2s, and Hannah Brown took the B string in 14.0s. Although Young-Rogers produced a personal best of 27.0s in the 200m A string, she just lost out to New Marske’s Amy Carter by a hairsbreadth for victory in the judge’s room. Nadine Arkle won the B race in 28.4s. Both Morpeth Harriers athletes in the Under 15 Girls 300m produced personal bests of 46.3s and 46.9s, giving Harriet Priest and Ailsa Jones respective places of fourth and second in the A and B string sections. Another personal best by a Morpeth Harriers athlete in the Under 15 Girls events came in the 1500m A race, where Ellie Coxon finished second in 5m39.8s. Gracie Hufton finished second in the B race in 5m40.6s. A superb result was achieved by Hannah Brown and Harriet Priest in the Under 15 Girls 75m Hurdles. Brown finished second in the A string in 12.5s, and Priest clocked 12.8s, to take the B race. Morpeth Harriers Under 15 Girls 4 x 100m Relay squad were formidable winners in 53.9s. Ruaridh Lang once again proved to be the clubs star performer in the Under 15 Boys events. The English Schools Bronze medallist again proved to be a league record breaker in the Shot, when he putted a new personal best for an A string victory with 12.40m. Making his Morpeth debut, Andrew Knight finished as fourth B string with 7.74m. This pairing also teamed up in the Discus, where Lang took the A string with a best of 42.04m, and Knight produced a best of 17.87m, to finish as second B string. Unfortunately Morpeth Harriers had a very distinct lack of man power in the Under 15 Boys scoring track events due to holidays. In the 300m, Taylor Glover and Connor Marshall both produced personal bests of 43.0s and 48.2s respectively, giving them fourth places in the A and B strings of an event that they might not have done, had there not been a shortage of athletes. Glover and Marshall did have a moment of glory later however when they achieved a double win in the 1500m, posting times of 4m26.7s and 4m50.7s respectively. Morpeth Harriers had only one Under 15 Boy sprinter available to them on a vital day. Jack Balmbro finished third on both counts in the 100m and 200m in 13.3s and 26.2s. The Under 13 Boys events saw some excellent results produced by Morpeth Harriers small band of athletes Thomas Cunningham and Findlay Deakin produced the best result here, finishing in second places respectively in the 800m A and B races. Cunningham posted a time of 2m32.7s, and Deakin clocked 2m34.5s. Andrew Hudspith and Dylan Davies once again proved a formidable pairing in the 1500m. Hudspith finished third in the A race in 5m15.3s, and Davies won the B race in 5m21.1s. Matthew Ash and Nathan Hume performed well in the Under 13 Boys sprints for Morpeth. In the 100m Ash clocked 14.6s to finish fourth in the A race, and Hume had a superb victory in the B race in 14.9s. Ash clocked 29.9s for third in the A race of the 200m, and Hume was only a fraction slower, when finishing third in the B string in 30.6s. Despite the small number of athletes that Morpeth Harriers had on competitive duty in the Under 13 Boys events, they still managed to muster a 4 x 100m Relay squad, who all performed well to finish a very close third in 57.6s behind Blaydon who were first, and second placed Gateshead, with only marginally over a second dividing them. The clubs youngest age group girls also performed well, with Holly Peck and Rhiannon Hedley providing a superb double win in the 1500m. Peck won the A race in 5m09.6s, and Hedley took the B race in 5m14.2s. Despite clocking a personal best of 30.8s in the 200m A race, Grace Bathgate finished third. She was well backed up however by Amy Lott’s B race victory in 31.3s. Bathgate also finished fourth in the A race of the 100m in 15.3s, and Holly Peck backed her up well in the B race, finishing a close third in 15.6s. Lily Heaton found North East Champion Natasha Stephenson just a little too hot to handle in the 800m, and finished second in 2m38.3s. In the 70m Hurdles A race, Emma Lawson clocked a new personal best of 14.7s, when finishing third. Charlotte Bruce of Morpeth finished fifth in the B race in 17.0s. Lawson achieved a second personal best of 3.70m, when she finished fifth in the A string Long Jump. Amy Lott’s 3.19m got her fifth place in the B string. Elsewhere in the Field Events, Elena Sanders of Morpeth Harriers achieved a big personal best when throwing 12.49m to finish fourth in the A string Javelin. Another personal best here was that of Holly Peck, who supported Sanders efforts well, by finishing third in the B string with 9.98m. At the time of going to press the result of the Under 13 Girls Shot remains missing from the events tally, it is thought that Sanders also performed well in that, and Morpeth Harriers winning margin may lengthen slightly because of that. The Morpeth Harriers Under 13 Girls 4 x 100m Relay squad finished fourth in 61.1s. Naomi Arkle was in excellent form in the Under 17 Women’s events for Morpeth Harriers. She just missed out for victory in the A race of the 100m when clocking 13.7s, however she later very convincingly won the 200m A race in 27.7s. Morpeth Harriers were well backed up in the respective B races, with wins by Shannon Docherty (14.1s), and Lily Hood (30.0s). Abby Sheldon was Morpeth Harriers other Under 17 Women’s track winner on the day, taking the 1500m in 5m16.7s Sheldon also competed earlier in the 300m, where she clocked 46.9s for third in the A string. Lauren Eadington of Morpeth finished second in the B race of the 300m in 48.6s. Abby Sheldon certainly added to the joys of her day, by a superb winning performance in the Javelin, posting new figures of 24.71m, winning by just under a metre. Other good Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Women’s Field Event results came from Naomi Arkle, who added to her earlier track successes by finishing second in the Shot with a best of 7.81m, and Shannon Docherty, who was third A string in the Long Jump with a best of 3.31m. Morpeth Harriers Under 17 Women rounded off a superb day by nearly snatching a win in their 4 x 100m Relay, only losing out by a hairsbreadth to Gateshead in 55.9s. FINAL MATCH RESULT (Subject to Further Scrutiny) 1st Morpeth Harriers 716pts, 2nd Blaydon 597.5pts, 3rd Harrogate 592.5pts, 4th New Marske 590pts, 5th Gateshead B 505pts, 6th Tynedale 484pts. A superb end to a superb season for Morpeth Harriers hard working Young Athletes squad, winning the Division 1 Team Title was a just reward for their equally hard working respective Team Managers Paddy Paulsen (Male), and Mark Brown (Female), not forgetting their much valued assistants Steve Garrett, Hans Paulsen, and Janet Peck. Comments are closed.
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