WILSON DOMINATES TO TAKE FIRST SENIOR TITLE

Michael Wilson stole the Harriers Headline after a busy week of road and track racing by taking the Northern Senior 800m title at Sportcity, Manchester on Sunday.

The 20-year old Birmingham University student kicked hard off a slow early pace to win the final convincingly in 1:53.45, some 1.34 seconds ahead of runner-up John Ashcroft of Liverpool Harriers. Michael had hinted at being in good shape late last month when clocking 3:47.71 over 1500m at Watford, and confirmed it with his dominant performance at Sportcity, suggesting his 800 best of 1:52.01 from 2014 is due for revision at some stage over the summer.

Steve McMahon continued his summer of PB’s by shaving 3.01 off the 5000m best he set at the North-Eastern Championships to stop the clock at 15:48.83 in 16th place.

Wilson Dominates To Take First Senior Title.

In the 1500m Sparrow Morley dipped under four minutes for the first time, his 3:59.82 edging him into the final as a fastest loser, where an intense period of racing both on and off the track appeared to catch up with him and he finished 11th.

Declan Murray clocked a new PB for 400m at the North-East Grand Prix at Jarrow last Wednesday, but blew his 53.6 out of the water at the Durham Schools Championships on the same track last Saturday with 52.80,

Also on the track, at Monkton Stadium, Jess Fox and Eve Quinn took their respective Senior and Intermediate 1500m titles at the Durham Schools Championships. Fresh from an 800m personal best on the same track last Wednesday, Eve continues to show real potential, as her 5:03.2 clipped 1/10th of a second off her previous best for the metric mile, whilst Jess was close to her fastest, winning by over half a minute in 4:55.9.

Declan Murray also posted a new 400m best (53.6) at the North-East Grand Prix last Wednesday, but blew that out of the water at the weekend, finishing second in 52.80. Previously better known as a 100/200m specialist, Declan began 2016 with a one-lap best of 57.4 and must now have his sights set on the 50-second barrier, if not this season then certainly next.

Sarah Knight was the Harriers other county Champion at the weekend, following up her 3000m U-17 club record of 11:02.7 last Wednesday, with a comfortable 11:27.2 victory.

From track to tarmac, 33 Royal Blue lads and lasses could be seen gannin alang the Scotswood Road last Thursday night, to claim the unique post-race refreshments for which the Blaydon Race has, amongst other things, become famous.

Steve Rankin following a sharpener over 800m at Jarrow the night before, was first to tuck into his beer and sandwiches at the finish line, leading the Wearsiders home on Tyneside in 15th place, with Kev Jeffress, and Matt Devlin also making the top 25 in the 36th running of this famous race.

On Sunday, mileage monster Matt Jones finished second in the Everyone Active 10k in Marske-by-the-Sea, clocking 33:53 behind winner James Askew of Durham City Harriers.

Following Northern success on the track, Head Coach Richie Tough now turns his attentions to another Northern title race, the Sunderland 5k on Wednesday July 13th at the Silksworth Sports Complex.