Morpeth Harriers James Young and Scott Beattie finished just outside the medals in Sunday’s 3000m, at the Microplus UK Athletics Championships, held at Birmingham on Sunday.
Beattie had led for a good proportion of the event, however despite a desperate fightback, he faded to fifth, just behind Young, who had run steadily just behind the leaders throughout. Young finished fourth in a new personal best time of 7m54.24s, taking almost a second off his previous figures, whilst Beattie produced a time of 7m54.64s, about seven seconds adrift of his best. The race was won by Tonbridge’s James West in 7m51.09s, whilst the Silver and Bronze medals went to Charles Wheeler of Milton Keynes (7m52.19s), and Bracknell’s Zak Seddon (7m53.52s). Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson certainly went out all guns blazing, when he very convincingly won the Over 50 Men’s 60m Gold Medal at the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Lee Valley, London, at the weekend.
Not only did he win Sunday’s Final, but he did also it by producing a new personal best of 7.39s, his previous best being the 7.50s, that he had run in the Gateshead Series in January. He had earlier won his opening heat in 7.55s, from Lincoln Wellington’s Nick Johnston Davis, who eventually got fourth in the final, where the minor medals were won by Veteran AC’s Richard Brooks, and Eastern Masters Yinka Opaleye. Hodgson’s next race will be Torun in Poland in March in the European Masters Championships, as he goes in an England’s Number One, and Eleventh All Time in his age group. The 52-year-old;s confidence is certainly on a high at the moment, and the chances of adding other medals, particularly gold are also within reach, especially as he has now achieved a new North East record, and is the fastest ever for his age, and is now sixth fastest in the world this year. Saturday saw the NECAA Road Relays Championships held once again at Hetton Lyons Country Park a few miles south of Durham, with the club turning out in numbers for both of the day’s two races and retaining the Royal Signals Trophy.
On the weekend’s evidence, competition seems to be getting even tougher and notably in Race 1 (over four legs of the 2.2 mile, two lap course) which again incorporated both Senior and Veteran Women teams as well as Veteran Men Over 50, with Morpeth fielding full teams in all three categories. The race was won commandingly by NSP in a cumulative time of 50 minutes 23 seconds, for whom Charlotte Penfold ran the fastest female time (Senior or Veteran) of 11:55, with Birtley some way back in 2nd (53:35) and Jarrow and Hebburn 3rd (54:03). Morpeth’s challenge was headed by Lizzie Rank, who ran 13:46 on leg 1, with Tayla Douglas clocking 14:40 for leg 2. There was a promising Senior debut for Molly Roche here on leg 3, who despite having just turned fifteen looked not at all out of place when running 14:28, with Poppy Buck recording the team’s fastest time of 13:38 for a cumulative time of 56:32. The team finished as 7th Senior outfit. Meanwhile the Female Vets competition was unfolding at the same time, won this time by Sunderland Strollers in 56:13, for whom evergreen Aly Dixon clocked the team’s fastest time. This wasn’t actually the quickest of the day however, that distinction going to Justina Heslop with 12:45 for Elswick Harriers. For Morpeth, Laura Maclean recorded 15:45 on leg 1, with Pam Woodcock clocking 19:31 on leg 2. There was the welcome sight of Morag Stead back in action in blue and white on leg 3, her 13:14 the team’s fastest time with Fran Naylor’s 17:46 finishing the team’s total of 1:06:16 for 16th place. The Men’s Over 50 race was of similar quality, with a ding-dong battle between Crook and NSP at the sharp end, and all this after New Marske’s Martin Murray on leg 1 had put the North Yorks outfit (last year’s winners) into an early lead with the day’s fastest time of 12:29. With leading Over 60s Greg Penn and Guy Bracken both turning out, NSP were looking good for the win, but it slipped out of their hands on the last leg, with Crook recording a time of 52:11 to the Poly’s 52:55. Elswick were 3rd on 52:37. Morpeth’s Over 50s finished in a respectable 10th, with runs by Paul Bellingham (15:30), Stephen Land - on his blue and white debut - on leg 2 (15:17), Ian Armstrong the team’s fastest on leg 3 (13:06) and Jason Dawson (14:10), the team’s cumulative time being 58:03. Race 2, held this time over the customary six stages, saw Morpeth retain their title once again against the best of the rest from the North East, with their Over 40s also medalling in the same race. In fact the club’s winning time of 1 hour 4 minutes 1 seconds was only five seconds off the record they had set last year, with Gateshead Harriers nearly two minutes back in 1:05:55. The early lead set by Finn Brodie ((10:34) was whittled away however when a flying Calum Johnson for Gateshead on leg 2 recorded 10:01, the day’s fastest time, in overtaking George Lowry (10:46), to put the Tyneside outfit into the lead. It must have been groundhog day for poor George, who had similarly suffered the Northern Cross Country winner hard on his heels at the Birtley Relays a month earlier. However, after Alistair Douglas had chipped steadily away at that lead on leg 3 (10:56), Alex Brown put Morpeth back in the driving seat with a 10:34 clocking, and thereafter, with Connor Marshall recording 10:48 and last leg runner Carl Avery 10:23, the final margin of victory was more than comfortable. Remarkably, the club’s B team of Peter Smallcombe (10:52), Oliver Calvert (11:07), James Tilley (11:01), Elliot Kelso (11:15), Tom Balsdon (11:03) and Mark Banks (11:19) finished in third place in a cumulative time of 1:06:37. It was certainly a pleasing return for Oli Calvert and great to see so much young blood in the team - although with only set of medals available per club, the lads were unable to collect the team Bronze their performance perhaps deserved, the medals going instead to 4th place Sunderland Harriers (1:08:06). A further C team of Tom Prentice (11:10), Adam Pratt (11:46), Lee Cuthbertson (12:32), Shaun Land (12:30), Jake Parmley (13:13) and Dave Marshall (14:15) also made the top twenty, coming in with a highly respectable 1:15:26 for 19th place. Special praise here for the man with the muscles on leg 6, who was only roped in at a couple of hours notice (and after already running that morning), whose efforts meant the team was complete. The Over 40 Veteran Men’s race was as fiercely contested as the 50s had been, with NSP this time taking the Gold thanks to a fine 1st leg clocking of 11:07 by James Anderson, the day’s fastest O/40 time, the Poly team recording 1:14:38 ahead of Elvet Striders in 2nd on 1:16:32. But it was good to see Morpeth’s O/40s picking up a hard won Bronze at the same time, thanks to legs by Tony Lewis (12:59), Andrew Hebden (13:19), Lee Bennett, stepping down from the 50s (12:40), Ben Heatley (13:11), Colin Archer (13:03) and Andy Ball, whose 12:43 despite a week’s illness saw him get ahead of Gateshead’s last leg runner on the final stage for a cumulative time of 1:17:55. Well done to all who took part – always a great day’s racing here. Two Morpeth Harriers at opposite ends of the age spectrum were in action at the North East Counties Athletics Association Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Gateshead College over the weekend.
Both competed on the track on Sunday, and both won Championship medals for their efforts. Veteran Sprinter Trevor Hodgson, 52, certainly used his years of experience, as he beat athletes three or four years younger than himself to the finish line in the Masters 60m, to secure a Gold medal, posting a time of 7.66s, which was some way short of his best of 7.50s, which he had achieved at the same venue on 10th January in the Gateshead Indoor Series. Hodgson also retained his title which he had won 12 months previous in the Championships, where he achieved his previous best of 7.54s. He now embarks on a few weeks of intense Indoor action, commencing with the British Masters Championships this coming Sunday, followed by the Inter Area Championships the following Sunday, both of these being held at Lee Valley Indoor Centre in London. Hodgson then competes in the European Masters Championships, being held in Torun in Poland next month. Under 15 Girl Sophie Pledger, also certainly made a name for herself in her first year of Indoor competition, as she eventually claimed a most prized Bronze medal in her 60m event, after working her way meticulously through three rounds of extremely intense action. She excellently won her opening heat, by producing a superb new personal best of 8.27s, then went on to finish second in her Semi Final in 8.33s, but saved her best time for the final, where she yet again produced a new personal best of 8.24s, to claim the Bronze medal, only just missing out for Silver by a slender fraction. With two days of incessant rain forcing the cancellation of round 4 of the NEHL at Thornley Farm (to a generalised sigh of relief one imagines across much of the North East running community), elsewhere Morpeth Harriers were involved in some seriously fast competitive action.
The annual Armagh 5k – motto ‘Go Fast or Go Home’ – once again took over the streets of the Northern Irish town on Thursday evening, attracting many elite level runners from right across the UK and Europe. With snow having fallen during the day, this year’s race was held in some pretty cold and unfavourable conditions – although with some 17 sub-14 minute times and no less than 130 sub-15 runs you might not think so. At the sharp end of the field, James Young had an excellent run and was only beaten in the sprint to the line by Finland’s Topi Raitanen, the Finn clocking 13:49 to Young’s 13:50 with Sheffield and Dearne’s Alfie Manthorpe in 3rd. Six other Morpeth Harriers recorded sub-15 minute times, with Carl Avery next back, 58th in 14:28, one second and one place ahead of colleague Lawrence McCourt. Finn Brodie was 83rd in 14:39, Will Cork 111th in 14:49, Phil Winkler 118th in 14:54 and George Lowry 127th in 14:55, while Alistair Douglas (150th in 15:06) and Peter Smallcombe (153rd in 15:08) narrowly missed the 15-minute mark. The previous night saw two club members involved in the Ayo Falola Dream Mile at Lee Valley Indoor Athletics Centre just outside London. A rare opportunity to race over the distance indoors, the race was won by Joseph Tuffin in 3 minutes 59.24 seconds, with Morpeth’s Rory Leonard chasing him every inch of the way round the boards to clock his very first sub 4 minute mile in 3:59.55 in 3rd. It was an also a great return to form for Cameron Boyek, missing out on the 4 minute mark by the merest of 0.60 of a second when finishing 4th. Sunday saw Rory back in action, this time travelling to Monaco for an Elite 5k race round the streets of the Principality. Clearly in fantastic shape, this time he clocked 13:37.31 when finishing in 4th place, with the race won in 13:22 by Frenchman Yann Schrub. The time puts him in equal 7th on the UK all time list for the distance on the roads, and with the same time as legendary Elswick Harrier and Olympic Silver medallist over 10000m Mike McLeod. Something of an understatement, Rory would later note, ‘Good week ticked off…just getting started.’ |
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April 2024
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