Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson sprints his way to the top of the podium

Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson struck gold in the 60 metres at the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships held at Lee Valley, London, over the weekend.
By Peter Scaife
Published 20th Feb 2024, 08:26 GMT
Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson won gold at the British Masters Championships. Picture: Peter ScaifeMorpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson won gold at the British Masters Championships. Picture: Peter Scaife
Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson won gold at the British Masters Championships. Picture: Peter Scaife

Winning Sunday’s Men’s Over-50 final in a time of 7.39 seconds, Hodgson recorded a new personal best into the bargain, knocking 0.11s off the time he recorded at Gateshead in January.

His next race will be in the European Masters Championships in Poland next month, with Hodgson now rated as England’s number one sprinter for his age over the distance and also the sixth fastest in the world this year.

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Meanwhile, Morpeth’s Scott Beattie and James Young took part in a very competitive 3,000m at the Microplus UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Sunday.

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Having led for much of the race, Beattie finished in fifth, while Young, who had held back from the early leaders, finished one place ahead. The race was won by Tonbridge’s James West.

Saturday saw Morpeth’s Senior Men retain the Royal Signals Relays trophy by winning the North East Counties Athletics Association Championship Relays once again.

Contested over six legs of 2.2 miles each, Morpeth’s winning time of 1:4:1 was only five seconds off the record they set last year, with Gateshead Harriers nearly two minutes back in 1:05:55.

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The early lead set by Morpeth’s Finn Brodie was whittled away when a flying Calum Johnson for Gateshead on leg 2 recorded 10m 01s – the day’s fastest time – overtaking George Lowry (10:46) and putting the Tyneside outfit into the lead.

After Alistair Douglas had chipped steadily away at that lead on leg 3 (10:56), Alex Brown put Morpeth back in the driving seat with a 10:34 run, and thereafter, with Connor Marshall recording 10:48 and last leg runner Carl Avery 10:23, the final margin of victory was comfortable.

The club’s B team of Peter Smallcombe, Oliver Calvert, James Tilley, Elliot Kelso, Tom Balsdon and Mark Banks finished in third in a cumulative time of 1:06:37, with Smallcombe recording their fastest leg of 10:52.

A further C team of Tom Prentice, Adam Pratt, Lee Cuthbertson, Shaun Land, Jake Parmley and David Marshall also made the top 20, with a time of 1:15:26.

There was a further team medal for the club with the Over-40 Veteran Men picking up bronze in the same race.