UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships 2020

The North East Counties Senior womens team at Loughborough after their race on Saturday

No less than twelve athletes from the ranks of Morpeth Harriers had the distinction of representing
the North East Counties at the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships
held at Loughborough on Saturday March 7th 2020.

While the weather on the day was relatively mild, the course itself was as heavy and sticky as might be expected after weeks of rain, with competitors speaking later of the attritional and strength-sapping conditions.

On a successful day for the North East that saw their Senior Men win the team race and their Senior Women place third, Cat Macdonald was the club’s sole medallist, placing as 3rd counter in 41st place in the Senior Women’s team that was headed by Philippa Williams (ex of Elswick Harriers) 3rd overall, and Kate Avery, 5th.

The Senior Men’s race saw Gateshead’s Callum Johnson lead the North East team home to a tremendous overall victory, finishing individually 5th. With Morpeth’s Carl Avery’s eyes set on the Prague half marathon in two weeks time, he chose not to run and so unfortunately missed out on the team gold. Also missing out was young Alex Brown, still not quite back to his pre-Christmas best, and finishing in 122nd place and out of the team counters.

Earlier in the day, athletes from the club had figured in six of the Junior races,
with two of the North East teams coming home in 4th place overall.

Ryan Davies was 29th and 2nd counter for the Under 15 boys,
where Joe Dixon was 59th, the team narrowly missing out on a medal.

It was a similar story in the Under 20 men, where three athletes from the club all figured.
Ross Charlton was 2nd counter behind Middlesborough’s Joss Cowperthwaite (2nd overall) in 17th place,
with Dan Melling 31st and 3rd counter, and Dan Dixon 38th and 4th counter.

Rowan Bennett (66th overall) and Dylan Gooding (91st) ran in the U/17 boys, the team finishing 7th.

Finally, there were also representatives from the club in the U/13 boys, the U/15 girls and the U/20 women.
Oliver Tomlinson ran in the U/13 boys, finishing 163rd and 5th in the team count.

Abi Leiper was 79th and 5th in the team count in the U/15 girls,
​and Kirsty Duffin 120th and 7th in the team count for the U/20 women