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A very busy weekend of racing saw Morpeth Harriers in successful action on both Saturday and Sunday, with the club’s Senior Men travelling south for the English Road Running Association Autumn Relays while blue and white vests were also prominent in races at Kielder and Jarrow. ERRA Autumn Road Relays Another strong performance from the club’s Senior Men in the ERRA Road Relays held at Sutton Park just North of Birmingham on Saturday afternoon saw the long journey south rewarded with an outstanding top ten finish over the six challenging stages. Finn Brodie led out once again, clocking 17 minutes 21 seconds for the 5.84 kilometre leg and coming back in 11th place, but Carl Avery – who had recorded the fastest time at the qualifying Northern Relay a fortnight beforehand – moved the team right up to 4th after running one second faster. On third leg George Lowry’s 18:21 meant they moved down to 9th, but Josh Fiddaman (17:47) moved up two places on leg four and Phil Winkler, recording the same time on leg five, moved up a further two to 5th. Drafted in at relatively short notice and still not fully race fit, Sam Hancox’s 18:47 on last leg saw the club finish in 8th place of some 67 teams with an overall time of 1:47:23, an excellent placing by the team with Morpeth the only club to fly the flag for the North East region. In fact the only other team from the North of England to finish ahead of Morpeth were, perhaps unsurprisingly, Leeds City AC, for whom Olympian Emile Cairess, who had competed so strongly in the Paris Marathon in August, ran the day’s fastest time of 16:38 to move the Yorkshire outfit into a lead on leg two which they comfortably held on to, recording an overall time of 1 hour 43 minutes 36 seconds, with Shaftesbury Barnet in 2nd (1:44:19) and Cambridge and Coleridge AC in 3rd (1:44:51). t The women’s four stage relay was won by Herne Hill Harriers in 58:12 with Vale Royal 2nd and Thames Valley 3rd. Disappointingly, aside from Gateshead’s Senior Men, who were 25th here, the only other NE representation appears to have been in the U/17 Boys, where NSP finished in 14th. A good job that Morpeth, at least, are travelling. Full results  The start of the Kielder Marathon Kielder Marathon Weekend Closer to home, the west of the county welcomed 3,000 competitors for the Kielder Marathon Weekend, with a range of events that included both a duathlon and a 10k race on the Saturday, while Sunday saw both half and full marathons held over the challenging circuit around the reservoir. The 10k race saw a double Morpeth victory, with Amble-based Over 40 veteran, the redoubtable Ian Harding taking the title in 33 minutes 51 seconds, while club colleague Cat Macdonald was 1st woman and 10th overall, recording 38:39. Dave Stabler also made the top ten, finishing in 8th place in 37:03, while Jane Kirby was 1st O/50 in 46:14 and Jamie Johnson 1st male O/50 in 41:46. Lindsey Quinn was 7th female runner and 47th overall in 45:57, with Rich Kirby on the comeback trail, 114th in 51:29. Good to see Emma Holt back in action too, 2nd woman in 42:29, with another returning athlete, Tom Innes, 11th in 38:41 and a Kielder ever-present Mark Snowball 13th in 39:22. Like they say, form is temporary, class permanent…Some 781 in total finished the 10k. Sunday’s half marathon was won by a visitor from Yorkshire, with Pudsey and Bramley AC’s Callum Hanson winning in 1:14:29 with Lucisa Hartley 1st woman in 1:30:39. Another regular visitor to the weekend’s racing, Andrew Hebden finished in 13th for Morpeth in 1:25:41, while Lorna Macdonald was 3rd female finisher in 1:34:03. There was another winner for the club however in the very demanding marathon, with Morpeth’s Jane Hodgson – who also won her some 13 years ago! - over five minutes ahead of the next female finisher as she came home in 10th place overall to win the women’s race in 3:16:05. First home in the race itself was Ricky Lightfoot of Ellenborough AC with a hugely impressive 2:34:24, well over ten minutes ahead of the 2nd place finisher Jack Mcatear of Eden Runners (2:49:51). 2nd woman was City of Stoke’s Chloe Hawkins in 3:22:40. Anna Wright was 3rd Over 40, 4th woman and 27th overall in 3:31:44, and Jane Briggs 233rd and 6th O/50 in 4:23:35. There were some 897 in the half marathon and 725 in the full. Well done to all blue and white finishers – an excellent showing across the board by the club. Full results Run Through Jarrow 10k Sunday morning also witnessed nearly 1000 runners taking to the streets around Jarrow and Hebburn for the Run Through Jarrow 10k. With the same model of an elite A race and a mass participation B race that the organisers had used for the Morpeth 10k in June, the A race was won by Birchfield Harrier Omar Ahmed in an outstanding 29 minutes and 15 seconds, with Sunderland Harrier Joe Armstrong 2nd, late of this parish, in 30:39 and Morpeth’s Alex Brown 3rd (30:49). Liverpool Pembroke Sefton athlete Kirstly Langley travelled over the country to win the women’s race in 35:03, with Houghton Harrier Charlotte Dillon 2nd in 35:32 and local lass Alex Sneddon 3rd in 36:34. Also running for Morpeth in the A race were Connor Marshall, 8th in 31:55, Kirsty Burville, 1st O/40 in 40:48 and James Dixon, 52nd in 36:37, all having good runs. There were over 800 in the B race, won by Michael Donkin with Olivia Clark 1st woman in 40:42. Laura Mclean was 138th in 45:49, running with Sophie Ward, 150th in 45:50, with both running pbs. Results Comments are closed.
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April 2026
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