Morpeth Harriers win team golds in road relay championships

Held in chilly conditions over closed roads, the Men’s race included four legs of 9.5k and eight of 5k, with the shorter Women’s six stage unfolding at the same time.

A steady start for Morpeth saw Finn Brodie come home fourth on leg one, with George Lowry on leg two, Sam Hancox on leg three and Ali Douglas on leg four keeping the club very much in contention.

All changed on leg five, however, when Carl Avery turned a 57 second deficit into a lead of over a minute.

Avery’s time of 28 minutes 41 seconds was the day’s second fastest time for the long leg of 9.5k.

In his first outing in a Morpeth vest, Lawrence McCourt extended the lead on leg six to nearly a minute, a lead which was increased on the day’s last long leg by Alex Brown on leg seven with 29:20, and then by a very speedy James Young on leg eight, whose 14:55 for the 5k distance was the day’s second fastest time.

Runs by Connor Marshall, Matthew Briggs and Phil Winkler saw the title won in a time of 4 hours and 48 seconds.

The day’s first event was for the U15 and U17 Boys.

Run as a race and not a relay, Will De Vere Owen got things off to the best possible start, winning in a time of 15:27.

With Liam Roche third, Elliot Kelso fourth, Ethan Phillips fifth, Bertie Marr seventh, Joe Close ninth and Elliot Mavir 26th, it was very much a Morpeth procession as the club took both A team and B team medals.

Morpeth’s Senior Women fielded a team of Morag Stead, Lorna Macdonald, Lizzie Rank, Claire Calverley, Tayla Douglas and Kirsty Burville in the six stage relay, coming 18th.

On Sunday morning there were more than 500 finishers for the Port of Blyth 10k.

Morpeth’s Ali Douglas came second and Shuna Rank was the first Over-55.

Finally, the club’s leading veteran, Over-65 Gavin Bayne, represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the World Masters Half-Marathon Championships in Poland over the weekend and finished in eighth place, with GB fourth.