​Since joining the club, I have spent 45 summers managing either our men's or women's track & field teams.
This will be the last time.  With some notable exceptions, the level of commitment of our women's squad
this time has been the worst that I have experienced.
 
The dates of our four fixtures have been available on the club website, noticeboards and elsewhere since
well before the start of the season.  How is it that so many of our athletes seem unable to plan to make
themselves available for our league dates?  That's apart from those who don't have the courtesy to reply to
phone calls or texts.
 
There were also those who were revising for exams several weeks beforehand and, in some cases, seem
to be still revising.  I went through the exam system to degree level and still managed to fit in plenty
of competition – I found it a great break from the boredom.  I suspect that many spent that revision time
staring at the wall or playing with their phones, or maybe socialising was higher up their priority list !
 
I hope that attitudes will change amongst our athletes next summer, otherwise my successor will have an
uphill task.  For me it will be great to plan holidays without having to keep clear of our league dates and
also not having to listen to excuses that defy belief.
 
Mike Bateman

With only just over four seconds dividing first and last, Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman
finished sixth out of twelve athletes, in the IAAF World Championships Women’s 1500 Final,
​at London’s Olympic Park on Monday evening.(7th August)

Weightman, who had run three good consistent races, including the final, was always in contention,
running against some of the best in the world, and could feel well pleased with her efforts,
despite just losing out on a medal with her clocking of 4m04.11s,
which was just over a second adrift of the medals.

The event was won by Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon (4m02.59s),
with America’s Jenny Simpson getting the Silver in 4m02.76s,
and in third place was South Africa’s Caster Semenya (4m02.90s),
just outrunning Weightman’s Great Britain colleague Laura Muir (4m03.97s) for the Bronze medal.

In the three races, Weightman’s consistency showed as she posted
​respective finishing times of 4m03.50s, 4m05.63s, and 4m04.11s.