A remarkable victory by their Senior Women in the final race of the day was the icing on the cake of a highly successful afternoon for the club at the 118th North East Counties Athletics Association Cross Country Championships, held at South Shields on Saturday. The first of four team Golds was in the Under 17 Men’s race over six kilometres of some muddy going at Temple Park, with conditions – while certainly not as bad as last year’s – still heavy under foot after the autumn rain. Oliver Tomlinson helped the club to retain the trophy it had also won last year by finishing first for the club in 6th place, with support coming from Harry Armstrong in 13th and Ben Moll, 22nd. There was individual and team Gold in the following U/20 Men’s race, with Joe Dixon winning in fine style from the front, and Sheffield University student Bertie Marr ensuring his trip back home was worth the journey by picking up a Bronze medal. Collecting his first team medal since joining the club, Ethan Bond was third counter, also running well for 5th place and a fine team win. The club’s most comprehensive win was undoubtedly in the Senior Men’s fixture over the afternoon’s longest distance of 12k, where, with six to count for the team prize, Morpeth managed no less than five in the top ten, with their sixth counter coming back in 14th. The race itself was won by a dominant Callum Johnson of Gateshead Harriers however, who continues to look an almost unstoppable force over the country, winning here by over a minute from last year’s winner Chris Coulson of Houghton Harriers. Lawrence Mccourt picked up a Bronze, with team mates Finn Brodie, Phil Winkler, Josh Fiddaman and Ellis Hetherington then filling the places from 4th down to 7th. Sam Hancox in 14th took his share of the team spoils, just managing to stay ahead of fellow Morpeth Harrier Connor Marshall in 16th. An excellent turn out by Senior and Veteran Men also saw Lee Cuthbertson 35th, James Deathe 57th, Ian Armstrong 72nd, Dave Stabler 78th, Jason Dawson 116th and Rob Hancox in 161st. Some 246 in total finished in the day’s largest field. The victory means the club retained a trophy they have now won every year going back to 2012, with Gateshead Harriers a distant second and Sunderland Harriers in third. The day’s final race for Senior Women, over two laps of the same course, saw Morpeth welcome triathlete Millie Breese to what was already a strong squad. The Stirling University-based triathlete – who has already represented Team GB with distinction at both European and World level in the Junior ranks – looked in fine form here as she tackled what was for her the longest cross country race of her career so far. With Cat Macdonald also running for Morpeth, the two blue and white vests were soon shoulder to shoulder at the front of the field and putting time into those behind. It was only really a question which of them would take the win, and despite Cat working hard to shake Millie off on the second lap, in the event it was the U/20 runner who was able to steal away in the final kilometre of the race, taking the victory by a narrow five second win. Behind these two, there was a battle royal for third place, with club colleague Holly Lawrence in her first ever NECAA championships managing a determined 100m sprint finish to just get ahead of Wallsend’s experienced Jennifer Berry for the Bronze and make it a quite remarkable Morpeth one, two, three finish. With four to count for the team, Poppy Buck came back in 10th place to cap another dominant performance. Lizzie Rank just missed out on a medal in 12th, Robyn Bennett also placed inside the top twenty in 18th and Linzi Quinn was 41st; all of these would have made the team counts of other clubs on the day. This time Sunderland Harriers placed 2nd with an unexpected 3rd place going to Jesmond Joggers, and the expected challenge from Durham City Harriers and Tyne Bridge never materialising. The day’s first two medals had come courtesy of the club’s U/13 teams, with Mason Gaylor just missing out on an individual medal when finishing 4th in the Boys race but collecting his share of a team Bronze, and Heidi Wilkinson similarly not far off the medals when coming home 6th in the Girls and leading the squad to a third placed finish. The day’s first race saw U/11s Mason Ellison in 13th, Luke Thompson 15th and Will Fawcett 22nd with some 65 finishers in total in a competition whose medals were generously sponsored by Bill McGuirk, who, despite his own ill health, was in attendance and gave support to the event all day. All at the club wish him well. Harry Douglass was Morpeth’s sole representative in the U/15 Boys, coming in well in 23rd, with Faye Heatley making 10th and Emma Tomlinson 16th in the Girls. Full teams would have been likely to medal, especially in the Girls. Tabby Robson and Molly Roche both ran in the combined U/17 and 20 Women, with Tabby finishing 8th U/20 and Molly 10th U/17. The lesson surely, once again, is that full teams are always in with a shout of medals. Nonetheless, an excellent day’s work for the club saw a final medal count of four team Golds and two team Bronzes to go along with two Gold, one Silver and three Bronze individually. Well done all who ran.
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