Northumberland Schools Track & Field Championships

​Despite the damp and very dull conditions, there was still a great deal of brightness
reflected in the performances of athletes from Morpeth Harriers,
who were representing their respective areas at the annual Northumberland
Schools Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday 11th June 2016.

The club produced no fewer than 25 event winners in all, two of them
Championship bests, and eleven of those athletes achieved double wins.
Thirteen wins in all came from the Boys events, with twelve coming from the Girls.

Fifteen athletes from the club were also responsible for minor medals,
achieving twelve Silver and three Bronze, to add to the tally of Gold wins.

The two Championship bests came in the Field, courtesy of Andrew Knight
in the Junior Boy’s Shot Putt, and Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot in the Intermediate Girls Shot Putt.

Knight’s winning Putt of 13.93m was also a brand new personal best,
which saw him improve on his previous effort by 58cm,
which he had achieved at Jarrow three days before,
which also now sees him ranked as second in the country, and first in the region.

He also performed very well in the Discus, finishing second, with a best throw of 28.80m,
which was almost three metres better than the previous best that he had thrown at Darlington at the end of May,
and sees him ranked as 71st in the UK, and fourth regionally.

Shot and Discus also proved most successful for Morpeth’s
Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot in the Intermediate Girls section.
She produced a Championship Best performance in the former with her best Putt of 12.08m,
which was also a new personal best by a margin of 37cm, which now sees her ranked 29th in the UK,
and more firmly maintains her status as top of the regions rankings.

Charlotte also won a fairly competitive Discus by a margin
of just over a metre and a half from club colleague Bobby Griffiths.
She produced a best of 29.05m, which was around 55cm short of her lifetime best.
Griffiths threw 27.51m, which for her was around 58cm adrift of her personal best.

The Intermediate Girls Javelin saw Griffiths win with her best throw of 31.48m,
and club colleague Ellie Burt finished just outside a podium place, finishing fourth with 21.05m,
however Burt could feel well pleased with her effort in the Shot Putt,
where she finished second to Pickering –Pruvot, with a personal best of 9.92m.

Appropriately we continue with Field event successes for Morpeth Harriers athletes,
where in the Intermediate Boys section the club had two double winners in David Thomas and Ruaridh Lang.
Thomas produced excellent victories in the Long Jump and Triple Jump events.
They were both new lifetime personal bests, with him achieving 5.92m in the Long Jump, and 12.50m in the Triple Jump.

Thrower Ruaridh Lang was also in superb form, taking the Shot Putt with 12.29m and the Discus with 44.35m.
Morpeth athlete Charlie Chisholm also competed in the Shot Putt and Discus events,
finishing in fifth and fourth places with respective efforts of 9.09m and 31.04m.

Morpeth’s Senior Shot and Discus specialist Elliot Moore was also
a double winner with respective bests of 10.79m and 27.00m.

Joe Briddon won the Junior Boys High Jump with a clearance of 1.52m.
Another prominent Morpeth Field event performer was Lottie Hume,
who won both the Junior Girls Shot and Discus events, with respective bests of 8.67m and 24.58m.
Katie Hilton won the Intermediate Girls Triple Jump with a best of 10.03m.

On to Track events, and Intermediate Girl Jessica Young-Rogers was certainly
in no less than sparkling form, taking the titles in both the 100m (12.82s) and 200m (26.27s) events.

Katie Hilton finished third in the Intermediate Girls 100m in 13.55s,
and Naomi Arkle placed third in the 200m in 27.80s.

Elsewhere in the Intermediate Girls Track events, there were wins for Hannah Brown
in the 80m Hurdles (12.89s), and Harriet Priest in the 300m Hurdles (47.93s).
Priest was second to Brown in the 80m Hurdles in 13.40s, and Brown played
second fiddle to Priest in the longer event with 48.91s.

Gracie Hufton finished second in the Intermediate Girls 3000m,
posting a finishing time of 12m01.62s. 

In the Senior Girls events, Morpeth’s Lily Hood took victory in the 100m in 13.81s,
and she also finished second in the 200m in 27.77s.
Abbey Sheldon finished second in the 1500m in 5m38.13s.

Three Morpeth athletes secured track victories in the Intermediate Boys events.
Matthew Waterfield produced an excellent run to win the 400m in 52.76s,
and Taylor Glover did likewise in the 3000m, posting a time of 9m34.27s.
Kieran Hedley won the 800m in 2m01.60s, and was chased in by club colleagues
Joe Dowd and Josh Burton, who finished third and fourth respectively, posting times of 2m05.73s and 2m07.27s.

Morpeth produced two winners in the Senior Boys events with Adam Gibbs
winning the 1500m in 4m06.31s, and Jake Masterman won the 2000m Steeplechase in 6m36.10s.

In the Junior Boys events Ross Charlton finished a good second in the 1500m, posting a time of 4m42.39s.

Holly Peck was a runaway winner of the Junior Girls 1500m in 5m02.64s,
and Ellie Coxon finished second in the 800m in 2m27.32s.

Lily Heaton finished just outside the podium places in the latter, posting a finishing time of 2m31.95s.

Meanwhile over at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow,
in the Durham Schools Championships,
Morpeth’s Joe Armstrong tasted winning success in the Senior Boys 1500m, where he posted a time of 4m05.3s.
Club colleague Jacob Hopkins finished fifth in the Senior Boys 800m in 2m11.8s.