Harriers’ results moving in the right direction, admits Johnson
Sunderland Harriers did better than expected in finishing runners-up to Morpeth Harriers in the Royal Signals North East Road Relay Championships at Hetton Lyons Country Park.
Team Manager Jimmy Johnson was very pleased with how the day went.
"Obviously, I'm delighted that we finished second, proving that we are an established well-drilled team in the North East. Morpeth are a classy outfit, but we will get the better of them one day,” Johnson said.
‘It's nice to see the Veterans get back amongst the medals after a two-year hiatus and let' s hope that continues. Overall, it was a great day for the Club as a whole and things are certainly moving in the right direction.
"Credit to all our athletes and coaches who turned out today giving their all for each other, the team spirit is immense ".
The Wearsiders got off to a superb start with brothers Joe and Scott Armstrong spreadeagling the field over the opening two laps of the 2.22 miles course.
Their times were among the fastest, with Joe the third quickest overall on 10:28, behindMorpeth’ s Carl A very, who recorded the fastest time with 10:19 on the last leg for Morpeth and his team-mate James Young was second fastest with 10:27.
Joe Armstrong showed he is near a return to full fitness with his performance in crossing the line first on the opening leg.
The ever-improving Scott Armstrong continued his fine form with a superb leg of 10:45, maintaining the lead for Sunderland and holding off the challenge from the talented Birtley athlete Chris Perkins (10:56).
The lead for Sunderland didn' t last long as Steve Rank in (11:25) was caught at the end of the first lap by Alex Brown (Morpeth) with a time of 10:36, giving the Morpeth Harrier a lead of 30 seconds. Bi rt ley were now in third place thanks to Tom Goulding (11:15).
The returning Chris Parr (Morpeth) 11:03 maintained his side’s thirty seconds lead in holding off the challenge of Stephen Jackson who was Sunderland’ s third fastest runner (11:05). Gateshead were now in third place thanks to James Cripwell (11:25).
With the weather conditions deteriorating, Morpeth extended their lead to over a minute as Connor Marshall posted a time of (11:22).
Sunderland were now guaranteed silver medals as Jake Rid ding who is in the middle of a marathon training block ran 11:40 and was streets ahead of Dave Richardson (Gateshead) 11:35, who now cemented bronze medals with a leg to go.
Sunderland now had the talented Adam Hughes on the anchor leg, despite racing solo he ran a respectable time of 11:25. This was no match however as the ram pant Carl Avery stormed round the two laps circuit with the fastest time of the day with 10:19, crossing the line first to ensure the trophy stayed in Morpeth’ s trophy cabinet for another year.
Gateshead completed the podium thanks to a 12:07 from Phil Jamieson.
Sunderland Harriers B team of Alex Seed (11:45), Cameron Lawton (12:59), Rob King (12:49), Joe Willis (12:58), Andy Graham (12:39) and Kevin Johnson (13:31) finished 16th.
In the Over-40s race, Michael Barker ran a superb opening leg of 11:43, posting the quickest time of the day.
This giving Sunderland Harriers the perfect start. The lead slipped away from the Wearside club despite valiant efforts from David Lash (13:30), Chris Dwyer (12:46), Mark Head (13:13) and Andrew Hughes (13:27).
It was on the last leg that Sunderland's Michael Edwards (12:36) overturned an eighty seconds deficit to haul his team onto the podium and claim the bronze medals for the Wearsiders.
The Sunderland Harriers Over-50s A team were rocked by the late withdrawals of Tim Field( injured) and Paul Collins.
Despite the setback the quartet of Paul Red man (14:55), Ed Sweeney (13:20), Steven Gordon (13:48) and Darren Dodd (13:19) managed to finish a creditable sixth place.
In the women’s race the
Sunderland A team finished in 8th place thanks to the efforts of Amy Callaghan (13:46), Jess Fox (14:15), Hayley Dobinson (14:30) and Jen Tomlin (15:07).
In the Over 40's race, after a staggered start of two minutes, Sunderland Harriers finished in 7th place through Rachel Taylor (15:18), Linda Mudford (15:32), Maria Davis (16:19), Claire Cook (15:11).
Elswick Harriers claimed the gold thanks to a scintillating last leg from Justina Heslop. The Sunderland Strollers quartet of Rachel Pullan, Alyson Dixon (12:27), Kirsty Lowery and Jen Deighton ran superbly to finish second.
*Dina Asher-Smith insists she has moved on from her year of heartbreak after setting a new British 60m record.
The 27-year-old beat Daryll Neita into second at the World Indoor Tour on Saturday.
Asher-Smithbrokeherown British 60 m record in the heat s when she ran 7.03 seconds and clocked 7.05secs in the final.
It came after last year’ s frustrationand heartache. She lost her grandmother before the World Championships and went on to finish fourth in the 100m and third in the 200m in Eugene before a hamstring injury dashed Great Britain’s relay chances and forced her to miss the Commonwealth Games.
She then pulled up with cramp in the 100m final at the European Championships, leaving her unable to defend her title, although she did win 200m silver.
“I understand how it looks publicly. Normally we do well to separate track life and our personal life, but sometimes things are so big, you can’t help the response,” said Asher-Smith.
“It was a really challenging year for me in 2022. But I’m happy and I’m just really excited for the outdoors. I’m really excited to go into training.”