track and field round-up - May 18-20

Action from the Men's 1,500m at Whitley Bay

It was certainly a busy weekend for Morpeth Harrier athletes over the weekend of May 18 and 19, with their Senior Men and Women in action in their second round NESDL Division 1 match at Whitley Bay on the Saturday, and their Young Athletes in action at their second round NEYDL Division 2 Match at Shildon the following day.
On the Saturday, the Seniors finished a close third in a hard-fought match, with only 33 points dividing the top three clubs.
Darlington Harriers won the match, and having won the first fixture, are in a very strong position to eventually take the league title.
Gateshead Harriers finished second, but only by a margin of a mere 20 points over third placed Morpeth.
Fourth place went to Blaydon/Elswick, who were around 95 points adrift, and they had finished second in the opening fixture in April.
Not far behind Blaydon/Elswick, were the combined squad of Wallsend/Blyth, and once again it was New Marske who finished sixth and last and appear doomed with two fixtures remaining at the end of June, and in July.
In the Men’s Track events, Morpeth dominated the three distance races over 800m, 1500m and 5000m.
In his first Morpeth Senior performance, Under 20 Man Joseph Close, who was both a Gold and Silver medal winner at the previous weeks North East Counties Championships, convincingly won the 800m A race in 1m58.38s, just three seconds adrift of his personal best.
Also making his Morpeth league debut, William Cork took the B Race in 2m00.19s, which was a season’s best performance.
Other Morpeth performers in the Men’s 800m were Under 20 athlete Elliot Mavir, who ran the sixth fastest time of 2m07.00s, which was just a fraction outside his personal best, and Andrew Lawrence, who ran the tenth fastest overall time of 2m20.54s.
Morpeth had four athletes lined up in the Men’s 1500m, and again they proved to be the dominant performers.
Josh Fiddaman won the A race in 3m54.91s, and Peter Smallcombe took the B race in 3m58.24s, which was fractionally a new personal best.
Other Morpeth performances came from Alex Brown (4m02.89s), and Mark Banks (4m14.74s), which were the third and fourth best performances.
James Tilley and Alistair Douglass of Morpeth Harriers were dominant in the Men’s 5000m, with Under 20 athlete Tilley, producing a new personal best of 15m27.93s, to take the A race, taking a whole minute off his previous best that he had set in 2022.
Douglass took the B race in 15m38.24s, just holding off New Marske’s Thomas Aspin for second place overall, and his time was also a new personal best, taking almost a minute off his previous figures set in 2023.
Morpeth also had a third athlete in 5000m action, Under 20 Man Ralph Robson, making his Senior debut, finished as fifth fastest overall in 15m54.69s, which proved to be an excellent introduction to the twelve-and-a-half lap event.
On his Morpeth Senior debut, Harry Scott proved to be a worthy asset in the Men’s sprints.
In the 100m, the Under 20 athlete was second fastest in the A race with a clocking of 11.41s and was likewise in the 200m with his clocking of 23.6s.
Sean O’Hara finished second in the B race of the 100m in 11.8s, however pulled up injured in the event, and was unable to sprint for the remainder of the meeting.
Thankfully, Morpeth did have a third sprinter to call upon in the form of Phil Pitt, who was eighth fastest in the 100m with 12.05s and was third in the B race of the 200m in 25.16s.
Morpeth’s other performance in the 200m came from Over 60 Veteran Man Paul Bellingham, who posted a time of 30.16s, which was just outside his personal best.
In the 400m, Anthony Liddle finished third in the A race in 57.6s, and Jason Dawson took the B race in 59.17s.
Paul Bellingham also competed in the 400m, posting a time of 69.44s.
Andrew Lawrence secured valuable points for his club, when finishing fourth in the 400m Hurdles in 88.9s
Morpeth finished second to Gateshead in the Men’s 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m Relays, posting respective times of 46.6s, and 3m37.82s.
The best performances in the Men’s Field for Morpeth came from the High Jump, from Mark Banks, who cleared 1.60m for third in the A String, and Anthony Liddle, who was second in the B String, with his clearance of 1.40m.
There were some truly excellent performances in the Women’s sprints for Morpeth, particularly in the 200m, where Freya Caygill won the A Race, producing a personal best of 26.25s.
In the B Race, Morpeth triumphed again, courtesy of Mia Belton, who also produced new figures of 26.50 in her victory.
Morpeth also had Ellie Wickens in the 200m, and she produced the eighth fastest time of 28.25s, which also represented a new personal best for the Under 20 athlete.
All three of these girls also contested the 100m, where Mia finished third in the A race in 12.7s, which was a new personal best, Freya was second in the B race in 12.73s, also a new personal best, and Ellie proved to be tenth fastest overall with a seasons best of 13.78s, which was fractionally just adrift of her personal best.
Nisha Desai produced an excellent win in the 400m Hurdles in 64.05s, against younger opposition.
In the 400m flat, Morpeth’s Poppy Buck finished third in the A race in 65.56s, this being her first Senior outing in this distance.
Tayla Douglass finished second in the B race in 72.34s.
Buck did achieve an excellent success in the 800m however, winning the A race in 2m24.24s, and it became an even better result for Morpeth here, when Under 20 athlete Tabitha Robson took the B race in a season’s best of 2m32.39s
Three Morpeth athletes contested the Women’s 1500m.
Debutant Holly Lawrence finished second in the A race in 4m56.81s, which was two seconds adrift for the former Havant athlete.
She was accompanied in the 1500m by her Team Manager Rachelle Falloon, who took the B race in 5m02.33s, and another club colleague Tayla Douglass, who posted a time of 5m42.18s.
Falloon also finished second in the A race of the Women’s 3000m in 10m22.75s, and Morag Stead took the B race in 10m23.91s, and it was the first time that Stead had raced at the venue since 2012.
Morpeth Women rounded off their track efforts on the day well, when they won both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m Relays in respective times of 51.8s, and 4m18.25s.
In the Women’s Field Events, Morpeth didn’t have a winner, however in the throws Claire Reid was at her usual industrious self.
She finished second in both the A String Hammer and Discus, with respective throws of 24.5m and 31.0m.
Backing her up for Morpeth in these events was Vina Desai, who was second in the Hammer (14.6m), and fifth in the B String Discus (13.6m).
Reid also finished third in the Shot Putt A String (9.39m), and Nisha Desai was fourth in the B String with 5.97m.
Nisha also finished fifth in the A String Javelin (17.8m), and Claire Reid finished fifth in the B String with 14.5m.
It was good to see Jump specialist Charlotte Earl back in league action for Morpeth, and she finished third in the A String of the Long Jump, with a best of 4.62m, and also third in the Triple Jump with 10.2m.
Ellie Wickens was second in the B String of the Triple Jump with a best of 8.91m.
MATCH RESULT
1st Darlington Harriers 409pts, 2nd Gateshead Harriers 396.5pts, 3rd Morpeth Harriers 376.5pts, 4th Blaydon/Elswick 281pts, 5th Wallsend/Blyth 276pts, 6th New Marske 215pts.
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With a slightly better turnout of 22 athletes spread across the three age groups and both genders, Morpeth Harriers managed to finish fifth in their second round NEYDL Division 2 match.
It was an equal spread of 11 male and 11 female participants for respective Team Managers David Swinburne and Julie Roche, who improved on their first round placing of seventh out of eight.
It was especially good to see ten of the 22 coming from the Under 17 age group, with six from the male side.
Strongest performances here came from the sprints, with Harrison Scott helping himself to double wins in both the 100m and 200m with respective clockings of 11.4s and 23.1s.
Those wins were somewhat sweetened by the B String wins by Conner Phillips (12.2s), and William Hodgson (24.6s), and the latter also ran 12.24s in the 100m.
Conner Phillips also produced a good run in the 400m, finishing second in 54.4s.
In the 1500m, Harry Armstrong finished second in 4m20.78s.
Daniel Scott, (no relation to Harrison), finished fifth in the A race of the 800m in 2m20.48s, and Steven Craske finished third in the B race in 2m26.10s.
Craske also finished second in the Long Jump with a best of 4.79m.
The best result from the quartet of Under 17 Women, came from specialist Hammer Thrower Alexandria Hodgson who comfortably won with a best throw of 45.7m.
Molly Roche finished third in the Under 17 Women’s Discus (11.00m), and fourth in the Javelin (6.85m).
In the Shot Putt, Charlotte Marshall finished third in the A String, with a best of 5.19m, and Lucie Todd putted 3.74m for second in the B String.
Marshall and Todd tackled the track events for Under 17 Women, with the former finishing sixth in the 300m (56.2s), and fifth in the 800m (3m01.68s), whilst the latter finished third in the 1500m in 5m56.0s.
Seven athletes from Morpeth competed in the Under 15 events, with four in the girls, and three from the boys.
The best performer in the Under 15 Girls was Sophie Pledger, who won the 800m in 2m29.69s, and finished second in the 100m in 13.5s.
In the B race of the 800m, Morpeth’s Mya Young finished third in 2m45.63s.
Young also finished third in the A race of the 300m in 48.7s, and Emma Tomlinson provided excellent B race support, finishing second in 50.9s.
Tomlinson also finished third in the 1500m A race in 5m15.27s, and Faye Heatley finished second in the B race in 5m34.18s.
In the Under 15 Girls Field events Emma Tomlinson finished fourth in the Javelin with a best throw of 13.7m, and Faye Heatley finished fourth in the A String Discus (10.8m), with Mya Young backing her up well by finishing third in the B String with a best of 7.9m.
The best performance from the Under 15 Boys events, came in the 1500m, where Harry Douglass finished second in the A race in 4m40.66s, and Evan Laude finished second in the B race in 5m33.94s.
In his first NEYDL outing, Thomas Wilson finished sixth in both the 100m and 300m in respective times of 15.4s and 56.4s.
With three individual wins on the day, Under 13 Girl Lucy Raper was undoubtably her clubs outstanding performer.
On the track, she won the 800m in 2m40.53s, and Heidi Wilkinson made it double glory for Morpeth, when she won the B race in 2m47.84s.
Morpeth’s other track winner was Zoe Tomlinson in the 1500m, which she comfortably won in 5m31.79s.
Raper’s other wins came from the Field events, winning the Discus 17.3m, and the Shot Putt 7.77m.
Zoe Tomlinson finished fourth in the Javelin, with a best throw of 9.08m.
In the Under 13 Boys, Mason Gaylor repeated his match one performance by again winning both the 200m in 30.2s, and 800m in 2m34.87s.
Making his Morpeth debut, Aj Watson did well when finishing an excellent third in the 800m B race in 2m48.84s.
Aj also competed in the Long Jump, to finish sixth, with a best of 3.12m.
MATCH RESULT
1st Middlesbrough/Houghton/Derwentside 710pts, 2nd Chester Le Street/Durham C 683.5pts, 3rd Blyth/Alnwick 603.5pts, 4th New Marske 555pts, 5th Morpeth Harriers 419pts, 6th Blaydon/Wallsend/Gosforth 417pts, 7th Tynedale/Prudhoe 375pts, 8th Heaton/Tyne Bridge 301pts.
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Seven athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at the opening North East Masters Track and Field League meeting held at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow on 20 May.
Although not running as fast as he would have wished, European 60m Champion Trevor Hodgson was easily the fastest Over 50 Man in the 100m, when he clocked 11.9s, when placing second to Over 40 Man Chris Ferguson of Hartlepool.
In third place behind Hodgson, posting a time of 12.2s, was his Over 45 Club colleague Phil Pitt.
Andrew Dippie of Morpeth Harriers posted a personal best of 17.9s in another 100m, where he finished in second place.
Fellow Over 60 Veteran Man Paul Bellingham also of Morpeth, posted a time of 69.8s, when finishing third in one of the 400m heats.
Morpeth’s Pam Woodcock posted a season’s best of 16m10.6s in the 3000m, finishing sixteenth in her heat.
Following on from his earlier 100m warm up, Andrew Dippie posted a time of 12m40.7s, when finishing second in his heat of the 3000m.
Morpeth’s Anthony Jannetta and Lee Bennett finished 13th and 14th in a later 3000m, posting respective times of 10m28.4s and 10m42.20s.