Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard smashes Mo Farah's 10k road record

The city has a reputation for one of the fastest courses in the world, something Morpeth Harrier Leonard would be unlikely to disagree with as he took a whole six seconds off the previous UK best time for the distance on the roads, a record that had been set by Mo Farah back in 2010, and which was equalled by Emile Cairess on the same course in Spain in 2022.

In a race that also saw Olympic gold medal winning British triathlete Alex Yee finish in a time of 28 minutes as he prepares to take on the London Marathon, Rory finished in 15th place overall, with the race won in a new European record time of 26:53 by Swede Andreas Almgren, who narrowly beat South Sudanese refugee Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu by a second.

Crediting the coaching team around him, Leonard later described the remarkable achievement simply as ‘surreal…I came into this race knowing I could achieve it’, but also determinedly set his stall out for the future, saying it was: ‘time to move to the next level’.

It was undoubtedly a much chillier experience for young Joe Dixon as he took on the latest round of the UKA Cross Challenge in Glasgow on Saturday in sub zero temperatures over a snowy course in Alexandra Park.

Dixon had his best run of the series so far, finishing in third place behind Scot Thomas Hilton, with Swede Erik Nederheim in second place.

Closer to home, Morpeth’s Senior Men took the North East Counties Athletics Association Cross Country Relays title at Birtley on Sunday, winning by a massive margin of over a minute and a half, with the club’s B team also managing a second place finish.

First leg runner Finn Brodie also ran the day’s fastest leg to take an early lead which only got wider as the race progressed, with George Lowry and Josh Fiddaman the other two team members.

The B team of Peter Smallcombe, Andrew Lawrence and Joe Close were sadly unable to claim a further set of championship medals, but did at least have the satisfaction of coming home over 20 seconds ahead of nearest rivals Darlington Harriers and Gateshead.

The North East Masters Athletics Association Championships were run over the same course earlier in the day, with Morpeth’s Over-45s team of Jason Dawson, Richard Glennie and Andrew Ball claiming a team silver in their category, with Ball also recording the day’s fastest O45 time.

The Over-55s team of Gavin Bayne, Richard Sill and Lee Bennett just missed out on a medal when finishing fourth, although, with the team containing both a 65 and a 70-year-old, it was no mean achievement.

All three did at least pick up individual awards, with Bayne second fastest O65 and both Sill and Bennett recording the fastest times in the O70 and O55 categories respectively.