Autumnal setting for Harriers at Hexham

Six Alnwick Harriers were amongst 502 runners who took part in the out and back slightly undulating 10k facing a fairly strong head wind as they turned for home back towards Hexham.

First back for Alnwick in the 10k was Jo Powell in a PB time of 45.22 finishing 2nd female V45. Next home was Jennifer Knight also bagging a PB of 51.46 closely followed by Louise Callaghan in a time of 51.55 finishing 4th female V55. Caro Fentiman at Hexham with a huge family following and supporting her mum and cousin who were also running, finished in 53.01. Well done to George Williams who was 3rd male V70 in a time of 55.45. Jennifer’s sister Linda Patterson came home in 1.04.45.In the 5k event with 31 runners taking part Mark Hume finished on 36.09.

Sunday’s North Eastern Harrier League Cross Country fixture on the Lambton estate was cancelled because the parking area was waterlogged.

Discussions have already started about rescheduling the race, either later in the year or towards the spring.

Other weekend results for the Harriers were:

Druridge Bay parkrun – 8 Carole Page 21:29 (1st female); 10 Tim Falconer 21:35; 16 Chris Stewart 23:40; 31 Rachel Claire Heeley 25:35; 38 Philip Lee 26:10; 45 Jennifer Knight 26:33; 50 Ian Stephenson 26:54; 55 George Williams 27:35; 77 Lorna Stephenson 29:57; 82 Alice Tetley-Paul 30:53; 85 Eleanor Heeley 31:28.

Pastures parkrun – 4 Oliver Telfer 19:21; 7 Michael Telfer 20:59; 23 Mel Steer 25:26; 35 Mairi Campbell 30:25; 54 Michael Henry 55:00.

Blyth Links parkrun – 8 Paul White 18:43.

Durham parkrun – 233 Kirsty Steed 35:29.

Rising Sun parkrun – 17 David Barnes 21:57.

South Shields – 9 Peter Grey 21:13 (First Over 60).

Workington parkrun – 94 Richard Eastoe 35:21110 Gay Eastoe 53:06.

Aguilas 7k – Jocelyn Bolam finished 1st in her age category.

Jedburgh 10k – 8 Steve Patterson 41:36 (2nd M40).

Leeds Abbey Dash – 226 Dave Richardson 34:02.

Morpeth Harrier and KEVI sixth former Daniel Dixon led a British 1/2/3 in the Youth category at the Super League Triathlon in Malta at the weekend.

The tough format requires the mastery of the three triathlon disciplines, with a 300m swim- 4km bike ride - 1.6km run, these all performed not once but twice.

On his first ever visit to the Mediterranean island, Dixon’s was a dominant win as he lead from the front throughout, the event set against the scenic backdrop of Vittoriosa Yacht Marina.

With a time of 23 minutes 23 seconds, nearly a full minute ahead of his nearest rival, he later described the experience as both ‘full-on’ and simply, ‘awesome.’

With the cancellation of the second consecutive fixture of Saturday’s North East Harrier League due to the previous week’s heavy rain, the main focus for many Morpeth Harriers was Sunday’s Abbey Dash.

At the front of the race, a hard fought battle between Omar Ahmed and Ross Millington went down to a sprint finish, with Ahmed winning in a new course record of 28 minutes 38 seconds by one second, with last year’s winner Adam Craig in third. In all, some nine runners ran sub 29 minutes and twenty nine sub 30. Ahmed’s time also meant that at long last the old course record of Mike Openshaw had been broken.

In the women’s race, Cardiff’s Charlotte Arter ran a remarkable 31:34, the 4th fastest ever legal 10k run by a British athlete, with Abbie Donnelly 2nd in 32:00 and Beth Potter 3rd (32:05). Arter’s time broke the previous course record of Eilish McColgan set in 2016.

Not far behind, however, was Morpeth’s Carl Avery, proudly wearing an England vest, and setting a new personal best of 28:58 in 9th place overall. Nine other Morpeth runners also achieved PB’s.