Good results and personal bests for Morpeth Harriers at league meetings

The Seniors finished a close third in a hard-fought match, with only 33 points dividing the top three clubs.

In the Men’s track events, Morpeth dominated the three distance races over 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m.

In his first Morpeth Senior performance, Under-20 Joseph Close convincingly won the 800m A race, and also making his Morpeth league debut, William Cork took the B Race in 2m 00.19s, which was a season’s best performance.

Morpeth had four athletes in the Men’s 1,500m, and again they proved to be the dominant performers. Josh Fiddaman won the A race, and Peter Smallcombe took the B race in 3m 58.24s, which was fractionally a new personal best.

James Tilley and Alistair Douglass were dominant in the Men’s 5,000m, with Under-20 athlete Tilley producing a new personal best of 15m 27.93s to take the A race, taking a minute off his previous best, while Douglass took the B race and second place overall.

On his Morpeth Senior debut, Harry Scott was second fastest in the 100m A race and likewise in the 200m.

Morpeth finished second to Gateshead in both the Men’s 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays.

The best performances in the Men’s field came in the high jump from Mark Banks, who came third in the A string, and Anthony Liddle, who was second in the B string.

There were some excellent performances in the Women’s sprints, particularly in the 200m, where Freya Caygill won the A race, producing a personal best of 26.25s. In the B race, Mia Belton also produced new figures of 26.50 in her victory.

Nisha Desai produced an excellent win in the 400m hurdles, while in the 400m flat Poppy Buck finished third in the A race – her first Senior outing over this distance. Tayla Douglass finished second in the B race.

Buck won the 800m A race, and Under-20 athlete Tabitha Robson took the B race in a season’s best of 2m 32.39s

Morpeth’s Women rounded off their track efforts in style when they won both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays.

In the Women’s field events, Claire Reid finished second in both the A string hammer and discus.

Backing her up was Vina Desai, who was second in the hammer and fifth in the B string discus. Reid also finished third in the shot put A string, and Nisha Desai was fourth in the B string.

It was good to see jump specialist Charlotte Earl back in league action for Morpeth, and she finished third in both the A string of the long jump and the triple jump.

The following day saw Morpeth Harriers finish fifth in their second round NEYDL Division 2 match.

Strongest performances here came from the sprints, with U17 Harrison Scott winning both the 100m and 200m.

The best result from the quartet of U17 Women came from specialist hammer thrower Alexandria Hodgson, who won comfortably.

With three individual wins on the day – in the 800m, discus and shot put, U13 Girl Lucy Raper was the club’s outstanding performer.

Heidi Wilkinson made it double glory for Morpeth in the 800m when she won the B race.