senior women defend north east cross-country crown with battling victory

Morpeth's triumphant senior women

The North East Counties Athletics Association’s annual cross country championships took place on Saturday afternoon at Steward Park, Middlesbrough, at the birthplace of Captain Cook and under the stern gaze of several Moai statues.
 
The 7km course was on reasonably firm grassland, only slightly muddy in places; Stewart Park isn’t large, but the organisers had done well with it, adding a few convolutions to each lap after the first, which comprised several up and down slopes without ever being steep. Most comments afterwards were certainly favourable.
 
On a day of thinner pickings by comparison with last year, there were nevertheless one team Gold and one team Bronze medals, allied to two individual Golds, one Silver and two Bronzes for the club.
 
First races of the day for the Under 13s saw Morpeth’s keen squad narrowly miss out on a team medal (although confusingly credited with one on the day, with chips of several others not registering), with the boys finishing 4th overall behind NSP, Tynedale and Darlington. Joe Fawcett was first back in 16th, Luke Thompson 19th and Will Fawcett 26th. Disappointingly, no U/13 Girls ran.
 
The first individual medals of the day came in the U/15 Boys, with Mason Gaylor collecting a Bronze, with the team again in 4th. Jack Dhawar was 18th and Jacob Thompson 39th.
 
Although there were no individual medals in the U/15 Girls, there was, however, a team Bronze, with the club finishing behind Durham City and Birtley. Heidi Wilkinson was 5th, Faye Heatley 10th and Zoe Tomlinson, still making her way back to full fitness, 31st.
 
The club’s first Gold of the afternoon came courtesy of a terrific run by Molly Roche in the U/17/20 combined race, where she finished 3rd overall but 1st U/17 and indeed only some 17 seconds behind the race winner. Emma Tomlinson was 21st and 10th U/17, with the absence of a third placed counter undoubtedly costing a team medal. There were no U/17 Boys running.
 
Molly’s older brother Liam also collected a medal, Silver this time, in the U/20 Men’s race. Oliver Tomlinson also ran well to finish in 8th, but once again no third counter meant a trophy the club has won for several years running went begging.
 
Final two races of the day were the Senior Men’s and Women’s, with the club looking to defend both titles won last year.
 
And one of the stand-out runs of the day by a dominant Chris Coulson from the off saw a gun to tape victory by a margin of 37 seconds over Gateshead’s Josh Blevins, with TBH’s  veteran Jarlath Mckenna defying the years to finish third.
 
However, with a Morpeth squad badly affected by illness, injury and unavailability, it was always going to be a close thing to see if the club could retain a title they have consistently won for over ten years.
 
It was looking promising half way through the race but ominous packing from a delighted Gateshead Harriers in the end saw them pinch the title by a ten point margin, with Morpeth on 117 points. TBH were third on 132.
 
The club’s five counters behind Chris were Matthew Walton, making the top ten in 9th, Connor Marshall, 19th, Matthew Briggs just the one place behind in 20th, Dan Dixon, in his first cross country outing for over two years, 32nd and Lee Cuthbertson, 36th. Tom Innes (63rd) and Andrew Mirfield (79th in his first ever North Eastern) also ran well.
 
Final race of the day saw undoubtedly the day’s best team performance, with the Senior Women defending a title they had won last year at Temple Park.
 
The team of Millie Breese, Poppy Buck, Holly Lawrence and Lizzie Rank set off with intent, with all four in the first nine after half a mile. Millie battled with Megan Stenhouse of Durham University until the second lap when the Nathan Shrubb coached Stenhouse, who was been in imperious form in the North East over the last few months, injected some pace and opened a considerable gap.
 
Millie was then overtaken by Helen Warburton from Tyne Bridge, and held third place from that point. Considering her recent problem with a hip injury, some slight reduction in endurance was perhaps to be expected, but the team GB Under 23 triathlete can be very pleased with her individual medal.
 
A determined force behind Millie was Lizzie, who held her fourth place throughout. Her pace after the pack settled down was remarkably constant for the remaining three miles. This is a feature from her training for ironman events during the year, a big contribution to this excellent result.
 
Although not at her best, Holly battled her way through from seventh to fifth, eventually collapsing on the line, although happily she recovered after a few minutes ready for the presentations. Considering the effort required to achieve this result, Holly can look forward to her next races being less dramatic!
 
Behind Holly, Poppy’s performance was a gritty display, as she was beset by severe pain in her back. Nevertheless she kept working very hard and although a few got past, she held up very well to finish 20th out of 132 finishers.
 
Altogether this was a magnificent triumph over adversity, and any senior women reading this will hopefully be proud of what the Morpeth team achieved on the day, they may also reflect that had one of these girls dropped out from injury or illness, there was no cover, and no team medals would have been won. Hopefully the club can have strong teams with some spare capacity in future. The team scored 32 points, with a 26 point margin over second placed Tyne Bridge and another 37 points over Sunderland Harriers.
 
A day of mixed fortunes then, and while congratulations must be extended to all individual and team medallists, something of a disappointment overall for the club after last year’s achievements. 

Full results here