 Morpeth's U17 trio celebrate their Bronze medal success Two Morpeth teams travelled to the English Road Running Association Autumn Relays at Sutton Coldfield on Saturday, with the highlight of the weekend undoubtedly the team Bronze won by the club’s Under 17 Men to add to the Gold won in the Northern Relays in Manchester some two weeks earlier.
Featuring the best in the country, competition was inevitably even more intense, and to come away with a National medal is no mean achievement. Held over 3 stages of 3.88 kilometres per leg, the same trio of athletes featured for the club as at Manchester, so it was once again Ryan Davies who led out for the club on the 1st leg, clocking 12 minutes 7 seconds for 9th place. Early leaders Rotherham AC took an early lead with Zak Ferguson recording the day’s 2nd fastest time of 11:38. Bertie Marr moved Morpeth up one place on leg 2 with his 12:18, but there was still an awful lot to do on the final leg for Will de Vere Owen. But posting the day’s 5th fastest time of 11:48, Will proved himself more than up for the challenge, with the team recording an overall time of 36:13 for a fine 3rd place. Winners Cambridge and Coleridge AC, for whom Isaac Morris recorded the day’s fastest time of 11:36, were the overall winners in 35:16 with Rotherham (who Morpeth had actually finished ahead of in the Northern) having to settle for Silver in 35:57. Congratulations to all concerned, and also to the loyal parental support team who travelled, as well of course to coach Mike Bateman. The club’s Senior Men also made the long journey to Birmingham worthwhile with a fine 12th place in the Men’s event, this time held over 6 stages of.5.84 kms each. Dominated by teams from the South of England with Aldershot, Farnham and District the eventual winners in a time of 1 hour 43 minutes and 37 seconds, Morpeth did have the distinction however of being 2nd team from the North of England behind Northern winners Leeds City AC, who were 2nd overall and only lost out by 5 seconds on an exciting last leg. For Morpeth, Finn Brodie clocked 17:34 on leg 1 for 14th, with Sam Hancox’s 18:00 seeing the team slip slightly to 17th. Making his debut for Morpeth, Will Cork moved the team up to 13th with his 17:43 and a returning Carl Avery recorded the day’s fastest time on the next leg of 17:29 as the team moved into the top 10. Runs by Connor Marshall (18:29) and Matthew Briggs (18:22) saw them drop down by a couple of places to 12th (1:47:37), but this was nevertheless a strong performance and the best finish for a number of seasons. Once again, congratulations to all. Behind Aldershot were Leeds City in 1:43:42, only 5 seconds behind after nearly two hours of racing, with Cambridge and Coleridge AC in 3rd (1:44:04). There were some 74 complete teams, with Gateshead Harriers next NE team in 37th, Sunderland in 53rd and Birtley in 66th. Fastest leg of the day was 16:39 by a flying Jack Rowe on leg 6 for Aldershot, who reeled in the unfortunate Leeds City athlete ahead of him. Comments are closed.
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