Track & Field

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by Geoff Hewitson The third NEMAA Track & Field League meeting took place at Monkton Stadium on Monday 3rd July. Although we were fortunate that the weather stayed dry, there was a cold headwind down the home straight, which didn’t help the 100m athletes and also made for a tough finish to the 400m!. Our men's team had a reasonable turnout of 8 competitors, but for the second successive meeting, the ladies only had the bare minimum of 3 competitors necessary to

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by Alex Hird Saturday saw the 2023 NEMAA Championships take place at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow. As always, this is a great chance to win medals on the track & field stage. I turned up mid-way through the competition, and immediately I was shocked at the lack of numbers around the place. Normal NEMAA meetings appear to be packed, this was far from that. Maybe a badly timed event with it being Father’s Day weekend? Or, as one of the organisers put it,

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by Alex Hird It was a cracking summers day on Wednesday, with temperatures in the mid 20’s. It was not however a great evening for athletics, as it was just too warm! Anyway, enough of me twisting, I’d entered two races for this fixture. First up was the mile. When I looked at the start list for this race, I was abit anxious as I had the slowest PB from all 16 runners, but I saw this as a chance to get

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by Geoff Hewitson The second NEMAA Track & Field League meeting of the 2023 season took place last Monday evening, once more in near perfect weather conditions. The men's team had a reasonable turnout of 9 competitors, including a welcome return to NEMAA competition for Jason Marr. A combination of unavailability and Kimberley being struck down with Covid at the 11th hour meant that the ladies only had the bare minimum of 3 competitors necessary to constitute a team. The men’s team

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by Alex Hird Wednesday evening saw the 2nd North East Grand Prix fixture of the season at a sunny Monkton Stadium. I was in the 800m, along with young Matty Richardson from the junior section who was making his competitive track and field debut. My heat came first, and I ran a season's best of 2:06.16 Still some work to do for me to get below 2 minutes. Matty lined up a few heats later, arriving right after his school cricket match. This was his

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by Geoff Hewitson The opening NEMAA Track & Field League meeting of the 2023 season took place last Monday evening in near perfect weather conditions for the time of year. Despite a couple of late withdrawals, the mens team still had a healthy 10 competitors, including NEMAA debutant Danny Oakley, and the welcome return of Percy Parkin after an absence of a couple of years from NEMAA competition. The ladies squad was much thinner on the ground with only 4 competitors

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by Alex Hird Over the weekend, the 2023 North East Counties Track & Field Championships were held at Middlesbrough Sports Village. The highlight of the weekend was having team GB athlete Richard Kilty (aka the Teesside Tornado) in attendance. He broke the North East 100m record on the Saturday, and returned on Sunday to take gold again in the 200m. I entered the 800m on the Sunday, and due to only 9 entering, I made the final automatically! It was an extremely strong field,

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by Colin Everson Fifteen Crook Juniors took part in the Spring Festival of Athletics with our club being represented in 4 of the 5 age categories – Under 9’s; U11’s; U13’s and Under 15’s. The Festival is a ‘Quadkids’ type event with our young athletes doing 4 events - Howler Throw, Long Jump, Longer Runs and Sprints. It was held at Stadium 2000 at Shildon, so very familiar surroundings. A big thank you to Aycliffe Running Club for hosting the Festival. The event was well supported

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I was back on the track on Sunday, this time at Middlesbrough Sports Village in the Charles Stuart Memorial Open meet. I entered in the 1500m, and was placed in heat 1. It was a warm and windy morning, which made this a little harder. I won't complain too much considering what some of our members we're up to at the same time elsewhere! Once the gun went I hit the front, and a small group sat just on my shoulder. I

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Wednesday saw the return of the North East Grand Prix at Monkton Stadium I entered the 1500m, and I was placed in heat 2 of 8. Looking at the start list, I was in for a tough night, my PB was one of the slowest of the 16 in my heat. Nevertheless, as soon as the gun went I hit the front(would you expect anything less?). I had a pretty decent first 400m, but the wheels started to fall off after that.