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A resurgent, thirty nine year old Carl Avery from Morpeth won the Quayside 5K and NECAA Championship in fine style last night, April 22^nd. A pre-race tip from Chris Parr that Avery was in fine form proved to be very true as he grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck from the gun, tracked closely by Leeds City’s Joe Firth, Houghton’s Alex Brown and Tyne Bridge’s Zak Kettle. The pressure from Avery was unrelenting and as the leaders entered the final kilometre at the Swing Bridge there was three in contention, Avery in the driving seat closely followed by Firth and Brown but the Morpeth man found another gear and ramped the pace up further to hit the Gateshead Millenium Bridge 10 metres clear and the finish in sight. He crossed the line in a brisk 14:28 with Firth two seconds back on 14:30. Alex Brown held on well for third in 14:36 and second in the North-East Championships after his clear win at Blyth over 10Km the week before. Zak Kettle was next to finish in 14:46 and bronze medallist in the NECAA Championships.

Megan Stenhouse of Durham City asserted her dominance over the women’s field to claim the NECAA title in an unpressured 17:54 , with Tyne Bridge’s Jess Eaton claiming silver after her 10K win at Blyth in 17:38 and for the second week in a row Morpeth’s Holly Lawrence took bronze in 17:55.

There were 790 entries across the senior 5K’s and young athletes races and a fine evening’s racing was enjoyed by all. All credit to Chris Parr and his highly proficient team at Run Through. The men’s and women’s winners each received the inaugural Tery O’Gara trophies in memory of the Wallsend Harriers stalwart.

NECAA Championship results HERE