Morpeth Harriers' veterans in the medals at North East Masters Athletics Association road relays

In the night’s first race, for Women and Men Over 65, evergreen Gavin Bayne led the club to a comprehensive victory in the category, his clocking of 12 minutes 5 seconds for the three kilometre course the fastest in the 65s, with David Nicholson and Les Cavill making up the winning team.

In the same race, Shuna Rank recorded the second fastest Over 55 time of the evening and also picked up a team bronze along with team mates Margaret Macdonald and Pam Woodcock, with Woodcock also winning an Over 70 individual gold.

In Race 2, over the same distance but for all men between the ages of 35-64, there was more success, with the club’s Over 45s missing out on a team gold by a margin of only 4 seconds to South Shields Harriers.

New recruit to the club Andrew Ball had an excellent run to record the evening’s second fastest Over 45 time of 19:17, also the club’s fastest of the night, with Lee Bennett and John Butters picking up their share of the Over 45 team medals.

There was also a team silver for Morpeth’s Over 55s, with Alistair Macdonald (12:00) and Rob Hancox (12:04) recording second and third fastest Over 55 times, and Neil MacAnany the third fastest Over 60 (11:49).

Morpeth’s Over 35s were 14th in the most keenly contested category, with Over 40s Anthony Janetta and Colin Archer and Over 50 Jason Dawson making up the team.

Ross Floyd made a return to competitive action for Morpeth in Sunday’s Sunderland City Runs, recording an excellent 33:34 in the 10k race for fifth place behind home town winner Liam Taylor of Sunderland Harriers (32:17).

Meanwhile, further afield Carl Avery, who has had a remarkable six months of top class competition both over cross country and on the roads, had another outstanding run to finish the Prague Marathon in a time of 2:20:30.

Avery was 18th overall in a race won by Kenyan Mutiso Alexander in 2:05:09.