Heaton Memorial 2023 – Race Report

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The weather yesterday was superb for the 2023 Heaton Harriers Memorial Races which produced some fantastic junior and senior performances. In total we had 65 Heaton athletes taking part in the race and even more in support of the event.

Junior races 

First up were the junior races and in total we had 12 of our Heaton junior members competing.  

Under 11

Leo Parkin (9th boy), Robyn Jardine (8th girl), Tom Smith (14th boy).

Under 13

Alex Parkin (7th boy)

Under 15

Alex Smith (7th boy), Finley Smith (11th boy), Jake Smith (13th boy), Alex Hill (14th boy), Mary Parkin (5th girl), Leila Burden (14th girl), Hannah Baqir (15th girl), Freya McKinnon (17th girl).

The Heaton U15 boys’ team came in 2nd overall team just behind a very strong North Shields Poly team.

The Heaton U15 girls were 3rd, again the girls were up against a very strong North Shields team in first with Gosforth coming just ahead in second.

Well done to the younger members of the club for their fantastic performances yesterday.

Senior 10K race

Observing our Memorial traditions, the 1-minute silence was impeccably held at 11 am before the race started. Much to the delight of runners and spectators the sun was shining for the entirety of the 2 laps of the 10k route across the moor. At regular intervals on the route, you are cheered on by the wealth of friendly spectators and Heaton marshals, so it’s clear to see why the club receives so much positive feedback from runners and other clubs taking part in the event.

The first home for the club in a time of 31.35 was Fred Davies. Fred not only took 5th place overall in the race but also achieved a new PB. Closely behind Fred, in 7th place overall was Heaton Harrier’s Chris Larkin in an impressive time of 31.45 which is also a PB. Louis Head was the third Heaton Harrier over the line in a time of 33.12 and 16th place overall.

The first female Heaton finisher was Ellie Reed who was also 7th overall female in a time of 38.28. Charlotte Redhead was the second Heaton female in a time of 40.58 (22nd female) which was also a PB. Laura Oldfield (27th female) made up the Heaton ladies’ top 3 in a time of 41.57.

Not only did we have a multitude of PBs we also had a number of age-category winners. These included:

  • Ellie Reed- 1st in the female V35 age category
  • Mark Hope- 2nd in the male V40 age category
  • Jamie Barbour – 3rd in the male V55 age category
  • Janette Kilgour – 2nd in the female v70 age category

Heaton ladies picked up 3rd overall team with North Shields Poly ladies taking 1st place and Elswick taking 2nd. The prize-winning ladies’ team was made up of Ellie Reed, Charlotte Redhead, Laura Oldfield and Ellen Tullo.

Heaton men took 2nd overall male team closely behind Gateshead Harriers and with North Shields Poly in 3rd place. The 2nd place Heaton men’s team was made up of Fred Davies, Chris Larkin, Louis Head and Mark Hope. We had some very strong performances from our men with six of our male members finishing in a time of under 35 minutes.

A special mention to all our volunteers

A massive thanks on behalf of the committee to everyone who volunteered this year and also to those who supported the event by running. We get an abundance of positive feedback about how friendly and welcoming we are from other clubs and race officials and it’s you, our members that make that happen.

By volunteering on the Town Moor, at RGS or just generally being around promoting the club and the race helps us to make this event even possible. It’s a testament to the reputation of this run that we were very close to selling all 700 entries this year.

A very special mention must go to Dave, Jacqui, George and Jason who have spent many hours of their free time organising this race over the last few months.  This is a massive effort on their behalf which we all appreciate greatly.

Also, thanks to Jules, Marshall, Lyndsey (with Matthew & Thomas Green, William Kirvan and all those on refreshments) – raising over £650 for the Poppy Appeal.

Thank you to John James for taking the role of race director and to Trevor & Jayne Hopkins and Dave Wright for welcoming athletes across the finish line.

Finally – it was brilliant as a club to see so many Heaton Harriers out on the Town Moor both marshaling and running. Here’s to what was a superb 2023 event. It’s a bold (and probably biased) statement but probably one of the best in the North East calendar and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to the 2024 event already.

Photo credits to David Daniel Young, Charlotte Redhead, Ellie Clark and George Routledge.