League fixture proves to be very hot stuff
COMPETITORS responded to the perfect weather conditions with numerous excellent performances at the opening fixture of the Northern Athletics Division Two fixture at Gateshead Stadium, writes BILL McGUIRK.
At the completion of an exciting contest it was the host club who eventually came out on top, relegating rivals Morpeth into second.
The Northumbrians led for most of the afternoon but were eventually reeled in thanks to Gateshead taking maximum points in the final track event of the day.
Their 4x4 metres relay team of Justin Cooper, Will Curtis, Martin Ferguson and Andrew Roen posted one of the quickest times in England this year of 3min 23.12secs.
Earlier, Curtis had won the 200m while Roen scored good points to finish runner-up in the 400m B race setting a new personal best of 49.94s which, together with Tynedale’s Greg Urwin were faster than the A race winner Matt Whitfield (Morpeth) who recorded 50.25s.
Urwin’s time of 49,79s was also a lifetime best.
There were also new pbs for the winners of the 800m and 1,500m Morpeth’s junior cross-country international Rory Leonard knocking nearly four seconds off his previous best for the two-lap event with a winning time of 1:56.93.
Charlton, competing for the combined Wallsend/Blyth team, had to pull out all the stops to get the better of Taylor Glover (Morpeth) to claim maximum points with a time of 4:04.87 - which was around a sevensecond improvement on his previous best.
The warm conditions did not favour the 5,000m competitors but Gateshead’s Conrad Franks led throughout the 12 and a half laps to win in 15:56.00, a time just one second outside his best-ever.
The shot was won by Tynedale’s Craig Charlton whose winning put - a new pb of 14:28m - was his best since 2014.
Alnwick’s Peter Skirrow, competing for the Wallsend/Blyth team, took both the long jump (6:37m) and the high jump - with his clearance of 1:95m adding five centimetres to his previous best.
In the women’s section Gateshead excelled among the field events, winning six of the seven categories Morpeth’s Bobbie Grffiths denying them a clean sweep.
Teenager Griffiths won the javelin (38.00m) while for Gateshead Leah Weatheritt claimed the hammer.
Sophie Littlemore lifted both the shot put and discus titles while Emma Pringle was a prolific points scorer by clinching the long jump, triple jump and high jump.
Pringle’s winning long jump effort of 5:34m was equalled by her younger sister Hannah, who was beaten on countback but led the B-string competitors.
The only female athlete to set a new pb on the track was Gateshead’s Georgia Whitfield, who won the 100m hurdles when recording 16.28s. FINAL MATCH SCORE: 1 Gateshead 328pts; 2 Morpeth 319; 3 Wallsend/Blyth 298; 4 Tynedale 270; 5 Middlesbrough 229; 6 Richmond and Zetland 176.