Young Bellamy & Johnson continue to make progress
Despite the coronavirus restrictions and subsequent national lockdowns leading to the cancellation of the vast majority of events over the past 10 months, Houghton Harriers middle distance runners, Henry Johnson and Will Bellamy, have been able to squeeze in some superb performances over that time.
Club coach Lynn Cooper, the North Eastern Counties women’s team manager, who twice represented Scotland in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games, went into detail about the achievements of both Bellamy and Johnson.
Coach Cooper said: “With no Championships on offer, Henry’s target was to run sub 1:50 for 800m and sub 3:50 for 1,500m to have a chance of being offered a place at the University of Michigan.
"He achieved both (1:49.68) and (3:49.72) as well as a personal best (PB) at 400m (49.34).
“Will only did four races and ran PBs at 800m (1:51.53) and 1,500m (3:55.52).
"He has had offers from St Mary’s and Leeds Beckett and is waiting to hear from Loughborough, so athletics has been the factor in his choice of university.
“Henry’s plan now is to prepare for Michigan and between now and then he would like to run a fast 5k and qualify for Euro Juniors and World Juniors at 800m, if either goes ahead.’’
Houghton had a good start to the year when finishing third team at the Signals Relays and North East Championship in February at Hetton, where Johnson ran the fastest leg and Bellamy third fastest for their team.
Just one week later Johnson was crowned National Under-20 1,500m indoor champion, he had won Under-17 title the previous year when Bellamy was also Under-17 1,500m outdoor champion.
The first track races came in late July at Stretford and Lee Valley and they were 800m races run
in lanes with social distance rules in place.
Johnson competed in a total of seven outdoor track races, compared with a much busier 16 during the previous 12 months.
Both qualified for the Muller British Championships (Seniors) at 800m a great achievement as first year Under-20s and good experience.
Both Houghton youngsters will target qualification again this year, although Bellamy will more likely set his sights on the 1,500m event this time around.
Other Houghton Harriers athletes have also done well during the summer.
Luke Pickering went on to run a time of 1:54.94 for 800m, taking five seconds off his PB time in the process.
Pickering and Johnson have paired up regularly for sessions during lockdown, as have Lee Dover and Bellamy.
Dover went under two minutes for 800m (1:58.69) in his only outing at the distance, a PB by almost nine seconds.
Two Under-13s in the group are Tom Pigford and Ryan King.
Pigford headed the North East rankings at both 800m and 1,500m for the season
with King also third in both.
The women’s Under-20 team of Anna Pigford, Amy Leonard and Eva Hardie, took gold in the inaugural North Eastern Championship cross country relay at Thornley.
Delighted Harriers coach insists the pandemic has brought difficulties in trying to plan club events in the long and short term.
Cooper added: “Normally training plans would be set for three months but we switched to month-bymonth as we didn’t know how restrictions would change.
“It ranged from only being allowed to exercise alone with no travel permitted to a spell where we could train as a group, provided we followed the Covid protocols in place.
“Several athletes have had to self-isolate over the summer; one tested positive.
"Training often had a monthly theme, with more hills or more tempo runs than usual or longer or faster Sunday runs.
“Silksworth track was well-used and not only by local athletes.”
Cooper was also quick to urge any social runners to consider joining up with an athletics club.
"If anyone has taken up running as one of the few things allowed under lockdown then I would urge them to consider joining a club,” she added.
“Normally Monday winter training is on grass at Houghton Kepier School, partly to train for cross country but also to be able to train regardless of road conditions.
"This year we have been at the mercy of the weather which has left icy conditions to cope with for the past couple of weeks’.
“The lack of races has enabled more solid blocks of training with no interruptions but it must be hard to stay motivated with no races to target.
"Just before Christmas we were able to hold our traditional handicapped relays and 39 athletes and six helpers turned out in terrible monsoon conditions, which shows how desperate everyone was to get back to racing.
“When racing resumes several of the group are looking forward to the rearranged Middlesbrough 5k, planned for December but a victim of the Tier restrictions.
“We have learned to be flexible and to respond to changing rules, to seize opportunities for racing - often at short notice – and to be resilient when races have been postponed.”