South African Steyn has Hexham race off to a Tea
NO JELLY WOBBLES AS GERDA RETAINS HER TITLE IN STYLE
TYNEDALE Harriers’ Jelly Tea 10-mile road race around the Hexhamshire country lanes was right up defending champion Gerda Steyn’s street.
The South Africa visitor brought the curtain down on a month’s visit to the region by finishing in a superb third place overall behind Sparrow Morley (Tyne Bridge) and Blyth’s Joe Woods.
Now based in Dubai, Steyn is more comfortable in ultra-distance events – but she showed she is equally at home in shorter races.
Twelve months ago she won the Jelly Tea when it was over a much tougher undulating course at Hexham Racecourse and, while she admitted the new out-and-back curcuit lent itself to much quicker times, she much preferred the punishing hills of the previous year.
Such was the comfortable victory Steyn nearly missed out on the presentation of awards as she warmed down with a steady six-mile jaunt!
Steyn, who came out on top in the Middlesbrough 10k recently before putting in a good performance in the Great North Run, said: “I felt really good today even though I would have liked it to have been a bit further.
“The further the race went the stronger I became and, on the return run to the finish I managed to pick off a couple of the men.’’
The race incorporated the North East Counties Championship with the gold medal going to the runner-up, Sunderland’s Alice Smith, who added the 10-mile title to the 10k championship she won in Blyth earlier in the year.
Morpeth’s Lorna Macdonald finished in the silver-medal position with Gosforth’s Katie Mellor completing the podium places.
It was a first county gold medal on the roads for Morley, who came home 12 seconds clear of Woods.
Morley took up the early running and was more than 100m clear at one stage but, approaching the halfway point, the Blyth athlete had reeled him in – the pair clocked at 29 minutes at the turn.
Darlington’s Shaun Marshall was in third place with Hedley Fletcher (Blaydon) hot on his heels in fourth.
The leading duo were locked together between miles five and seven before Morley gently eased away.
While it was not a real decisive move the daylight was significant before the leader upped the pace again before reaching the final incline entering the last mile.
Morley, whose victory led his club to team success, said: “The pace was not too great early on so I decided to move to the front and test out to see what the opposition was like.
“I eased down a bit before reaching halfway, though I still felt comfortable and it was good to have someone to run with.
“I knew there was a bit of a hill close to the finish so decided to push on before then and I managed to hold on in the long run to the finish.’’
Woods was second with Blaydon celebrating a county medal again after Fletcher grabbed third spot.