scott's 5k win crowns great weekend

A busy three days of the Great North Run weekend saw members of Morpeth Harriers win big races on both Friday and Saturday, with over two dozen then forming part of the 60,000 who took on Sunday’s half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields.
 
Action got underway on Friday night with elite races over one mile and 5k broadcast live on the BBC and forming part of the UK Road Championships, with the prospect of selection for the GB team in the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Latvia next month the prize on offer for race winners.
 
First up was James Young in a one-mile race over a course that started near the Guildhall, went out over the Swing Bridge to the South bank of the Tyne before crossing back over the Millenium Bridge to the finish line.
 
Always up with the leaders, James looked well placed throughout, but lost out in the closing stages of the race; Callum Elson of Cambridge and Coleridge winning in 4 minutes 8 seconds with Young unfortunately squeezed out into fourth place in the run-in.
 
The Women’s 5k Championship that followed saw Swansea’s Verity Ockenden win impressively in a time of 15:26.
 
Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard lined up in the third race of the night, the Men’s 5k race over the same course. The two club colleagues are both currently in fine form and were clearly determined to give good accounts of themselves on home turf, Beattie having already won the Quayside 5k over much of the same territory the previous month and Leonard having taken European U/23 Gold over 10,000m on the track. 
 
With Rory pushing the pace at the front on the second of the three laps, the small field  gradually spread out, but it was Scott who produced a hugely impressive late surge over the Millennium Bridge to show a clean pair of heels to his rivals. He went on to win in a time of 13 minutes 56 seconds, some four seconds ahead of Stroud AC’s Tom Mortimer with Rory taking third place in 14:03. The win sees Beattie secure his place on the plane to Riga for his first GB vest.
 
Interviewed later, both athletes spoke enthusiastically about the pleasure of competing in front of friends and family in such a picturesque setting, the near perfect conditions only enhancing the experience.
 
There was another fine Friday night performance later in the mass participation Great North 5k race that followed, with Peter Smallcombe narrowly beaten into 2nd place by a two-second margin by Luke Davis of Western Tempo, who won in 15:24.
 
Super Saturday’s Junior and Mini Great North Run events, with thousands taking part, were spearheaded by another win by an in-form Harrier in blue and white, Elliot Kelso winning in a time of 12 minutes 49 second for the 4k  course, over ten seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
 
The day’s races were split into colour-coded., age-related waves, with results here: Daniel Scott, 23rd in 15:31; Kate Kennedy, 61st in 16:27; Faye Heatley, 9th in 17:18; Jacob Thompson, 72nd in 18:37; Erin Burns, 49th in 19:52; Emily Vermaas, 23:08 (places given according to age-graded waves).

The headlines on Sunday were always going to be taken by Sir Mo Farah in his last ever competitive outing, Farah finishing 4th in a time of 1 hour 1 minute 54 seconds, with Ethiopian Tamirat Tola breaking the one-hour mark to win in 59:58, with the women’s race won by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir in 1:06:45, with Charlotte Purdue first British runner back in 3rd in a time of 1:09:36.
 
Conditions for Sunday were, however, certainly the most challenging that runners could remember, with punishingly high temperatures affecting many people's hoped-for times and expectations having to be adjusted accordingly; as Rob Hancox succinctly put it later: ‘it was brutal out there.’
 
Nevertheless, Carl Avery had yet another top notch run to finish just outside the top ten in 14th place in a time of 1:07:17 with  Lawrence McCourt only two places behind him in 1:07:36. Carl and Lawrence were also the first two runners home from the North East of England.
 
Not too far behind was training companion Finn Brodie, 30th in 1:09:56, with Sam Hancox, 34th in 1:10:31,  and Tom Prentice,47th in 1:13:05, all making the top 50.
 
Thereafter other finishers included: Chris Parr, 54th in 1:13:34; Ali Douglas, 92nd in 1:16:31; Ross Floyd, back in competitive action in a very respectable 1:18:37 for 130th; Marks Snowball and Banks, 442nd and 44th in 1:25:50/51; Andrew Hebden, 488th in 1:26:20; Rob Hancox, 1166th in 1:33:27; Connor Hall, 1353rd in 1:34:53; Jake Parmley, 1822nd in 1:37:52; Ben Clarke, 2165th in 1:39:33; Dave Swinburne, 2707th in 1:42:04; Gary Mason, 4939th in 1:49:19;  Will Clark, 6987th in 1:54:10; Matty Boyle, 7264th in 1:54:57; Paul Turnbull, 7270th in 1:54:57; Roderick Bruce, 12483rd in 2:04:53 and Arjan Piet, 17035th in 2:12:50.
 
Kirsty Burville was the club’s first female finisher with an excellent run of 1:33:29 for 1170th, with Anna Wright 1725th (1:37:17) and Tayla Douglas 1918th (1:38:25). In her first GNR, sixth-former Caitlin Flanagan was 3106th in 1:43:44, Linzi Quinn 4767th in 1:48:51, Laura Mclean 4954th in 1:49:21, Julie Vermaas 5037th in 1:49:35 and Mhairi Line 11748th in 2:03:34.
 
Sadly, as if the oppressive heat hadn’t been enough of an ordeal, the heavens then opened and, with the journey back from South Shields affected by flash-flooding and many Metro stations closed, the return home proved to be as much of a challenge as the race itself.
 
For all the weekend's results see here.