Start Fitness North Eastern Grand Prix (5)

​There was quite evidently more joy in the Hedley household on the evening of Wednesday 10th August,
when the younger sibling Rhiannon achieved a new personal best time of 4m57.8s,
when winning the Under 13 Girls 1500m, and the fifth and penultimate
Start Fitness North Eastern Grand Prix Meeting,
held at a rain-soaked Monkton Stadium in Jarrow on Wednesday 10th August.

24 hours earlier, elder brother Kieran, who is also a Morpeth Harrier,
had achieved a new best of 4m00.66s over the same distance
at a BMC Gold Standards Meeting at Stretford,
and there was no doubt that his achievement had spurred
his sister into adding further success to the family tally.

Rhiannon has now furthered her standing as the leading athlete in her age group regionally,
and overnight has seen her rise from nineteenth to twelfth nationally.

It was a very good night all round for Morpeth Harriers, who including Rhiannon, had a total of fifteen
athletes in action, on a night that was certainly well adrift of August in terms of conditions and temperature.
Although there were constant showers of rain, thankfully there was no hint of wind.

All fifteen athletes from the club did manage to score points in the individual Grand Prix,
and including Hedley, the club’s athletes managed to pull off no less than seven age group victories,
two from the track, and five coming from some excellent Field eventers.

Prominent amongst the Field Event achievers was Under 17 Women’s Throws
specialist Charlotte Pickering-Pruvot, who won both the Discus and Shot Putt
with best efforts of 30.01m and 11.40m respectively.

There were also Field event victories for Ruaridh Lang, Andrew Knight, and Adam Willoughby.
Ruaridh won the Under 17 Men’s Discus with a best throw of 39.69m,
Andrew won the Under 15 Boys Shot Putt with a best of 13.33m,
and Adam Willoughby equalled his best clearance of 1.35m, to win the Under 13 Boys High Jump.

In the Senior Men’s Shot Putt, Morpeth’s Craig Charlton was up against
North East Champion Craig Sturrock of Gateshead, who managed to Putt 14.44m.
Charlton managed a best of 13.09m to place second.

Back to the Track, and Morpeth secured their second win, when Holly Peck
won by a near margin of six seconds in the Under 15 Girls 1500m,
posting a finishing time of 4m59.8s, which was a little adrift of her personal best.
Another Morpeth Harrier competing in this event was Lily Heaton, who finished fifth in 5m23.3s.

When finishing fourth in the A race of the Graded 1500m,
Morpeth Harrier Philip Winkler posted a new personal best of 4m11.00s
In the B race, Morpeth Under 17 athletes Liam Marsh, Matthew Waterfield,
and Connor Marshall finished second, fourth, and sixth respectively.
Marsh set a brand new personal best of 4m31.7s, taking all of six seconds off his previous figures.
Waterfield equalled his personal best of 4m34.4s, and Marshall posted a finishing time of 4m35.0s.

In the Graded C race, Morpeth’s Abby Sheldon finished eighth in 5m10.1s, and was second Under 20 Woman.

Morpeth’s Adam Gibbs competed in the Graded 200m events,
finishing 6th in the C race in 24.7s, and was fourth Under 20 Man.
In the E race, Matthew Waterfield finished third in 25.3s, and was third fastest Under 17 Man.

Morpeth’s Jacob Clayton competed in the Under 13 Boys 100m and 200m events,
finishing sixth and fifth respectively, posting times of 15.5s, and 31.1s.    

Results