Northern Athletics Senior, Under 20 & Under 17 Indoor Championships

Rory Leonard on the rostrum with his Gold medal at Sheffield

A total of four Championship medals were won by athletes from Morpeth Harriers at the Northern Athletics Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Sheffield Arena on Saturday and Sunday 11th & 12th January 2019.

Under 17 Woman Hurdles specialist Amy Lott made a splendid start to 2020, when she won a hard, and well-earned Silver Medal on the first day of competition on Saturday.
Lott worked her way through three gruelling rounds, including the final, run over a ninety minute period,
to only lose out by a mere four tenths of a second, (a thickness of her club vest), to Stockport’s Meg Corker,
who is last years Cheshire Under 15 County Champion, and had also finished second in the English Schools Championships in the outdoor 75m Hurdles.

Having won her opening heat in a fairly modest 9.04s, Lott went on to record two consecutive personal best performances of 8.93s as she won her Semi, and just lost out by a whisker for Gold, as she further bettered her time with 8.86s.
Going over the final Hurdle, Lott had a slight lead over Corker, and it was only in the very last breath that the Cheshire girl seized her opportunity

Lott’s performance times are infinitely better than her clocking’s of 2019, where her best of 9.00s
was achieved in an open meeting at the same venue just before Christmas.

Her Coach and mentor Dave Thomas holds very high hopes for her next competition,
the Scottish Championships in two weeks’ time.

Other North East finalists in the event were Charlotte Rutter of Darlington Harriers,
who was fourth in 9.01s, and Kate Smith of Tynedale Harriers, who was fifth in 9.03s.

Another Morpeth Harriers sprinter in action at Sheffield on the first day,
was Abbie Ross, who was having her very first experience of the Indoor circuit.
She finished eighth in her heat of the Under 17 Women’s 60m Sprint,
and was 33rd fastest overall, out of a total of 36 competitors.
Ross also took part in the Long Jump final, achieving a best of 4.50m,
which placed her 27th of 31 in the competition.
This will have given great encouragement to the Vina Desai coached athlete.

Moving up in distance on the track, to 1500m, Morpeth’s Rory Leonard just fell short of medal criteria,
when he finished fourth in 4m03.77s in the Under 20 Men’s event.

This was Leonard’s first piece of competitive action since early November in Mansfield,
where he had led his club’s Under 20 Men to fifth place in the annual ECCA Cross Country Relays.

It was also his first taste of Indoor action for three years, when he had finished second
in the same Championship, when competing as an Under 17 Man.

Saturday’s event was won by Liverpool’s Daniel Preston, who posted an impressive 3m54.37s,
just outsprinting Houghton’s Henry Johnson.

Leonard did have his moment of glory on Sunday however, when in the second day of competition
he took Gold in the Under 20 Men’s 3000m, finishing second overall in a race that included
eight Senior athletes, and two others in his age group.
Leonard posted a time of 8m47.83s.

Another Morpeth Gold Medal winner on Sunday was Craig Charlton, who won the Senior Men’s Shot Putt
with his best effort of 15.32m, which was almost equal to his personal best,
with the closest to him being Daniel Brunt of City of Sheffield, who putted 13.25m.

Ruaridh Lang of Morpeth finished seventh in the competition.
The Under 23 athlete posted a best of 11.46m in his series of efforts.

Another Morpeth medallist on Sunday was Charlotte Earl, who won Bronze in the
Under 17 Women’s Triple Jump, with a best of 10.83m, which was just outside her personal best.

Back with Saturday’s Field Events, and Morpeth Under 20 Woman Kayleigh Wenn
produced a personal best of 9.07m in the Triple Jump.

Outside of the Morpeth athletes competing, it was good to see one of their
​former members in medal winning action in the form of Nisha Desai.
The Trafford AC Veteran finished a good second in the Senior Women’s 800m on the second day of competition.
She took her Silver Medal, posting a time of 2m13.34s.
On Saturday she had just missed out in the 400m, where she finished fourth in 57.07s.