A windy but bright day was the setting for this years Northern Athletics Road Relays at Sportscity and for the Harriers, there were twenty two Teams contesting all of the age groups, both male and female which followed on from running twenty eight Teams at the North West Relays held in Delamere a couple of week ago.

Senior Women’s Results

Senior Men’s Results

Young Athletes Results

The Women’s ‘A’ Team finished in 9th place out of nearly a 100 Teams with Carmen Byrne (23.04) in 32nd spot, Maddie Elliott 23.45 pulling back eight places, Victoria Mousley 23.39 winning back another five places along with the individual run of the day from Jess Judd who anchored the Women’s ‘A’ Team clocking the fastest leg of the whole day (19.52), pulling back another nine places.

           

The Harriers ‘B’ Team placed 43rd overall with Janine Fallon (26.50), Katie Buckingham (23.30), Hannah Cookson (26.33) and Ellen Sagar-Hesketh (25.57) followed by the ‘C’ Team of Lindsay Davies (27.27),  Catherine Guinan (29.02), Freya Black (27.31) and Becky Shorrock (26.35) coming home in 66th position.

                       

The Senior Men had four Teams competing on the day with the ‘A’ Team just missing the top ten by just two seconds placing 11th overall out of one hundred and twenty eight teams. Tim Raynes ran a great Leg (1) in 14th place (20.34) handing over to Rob Warner on Leg (2) clocking  20.38 and pulling back four places to leave Marc Hartley in 10th spot on Leg (3). Marc ran 21.51 in 14th place overall followed by Ben Costello on Leg (4) with 21.47 and Chris Davies on Leg (5) 21.42 and anchored by Ben Fish with another superb run of 19.50 which took him to within four seconds of the top ten fastest legs on the day and 13th fastest overall on the day.

                

The Men’s ‘B’ Team put together very consistent times between them as they came home in 34th place U20 Joe Gebbie leading off on Leg (1) in 23.04 and coming in 64th. Karl Billington ran the fastest leg of the Team in 22.12 which brought the team back to 52nd followed by another U20 Thomas Marchant picking up another place on Leg (3) with a time of 23.38. Tom Blaney got us another three places on Leg (4) running 22.47 with Zac Howe clocking 22.28 and gaining another nine places on Leg (5) before Josh Holgate on the last leg secured another 5 places with his run of 22.25.

            

Our ‘C’ Team came home in 77th position and the ‘D’ Team 108th. Jonny Murphy, making his debut for the Club took on Leg (1) with a time of 23.34 and the fourth Leg in the 23 second bracket produced by the lads. Leg(2) saw U20 Nick Smith clock 26.21 before handing over to Paul Bradshaw on Leg (3) who ran 23.32, pulling back ten places. On Leg (4) with a time of 27.10 it was a welcome return for Mat Nuttall who has suffered from injury for quite a time now and he handed over to Team Captain Paul Guinan on Leg (5) with a time of 23.26 followed by the fastest Leg of the team by Paul Brindle of 23.18.

                 

John Cookson led the ‘D’ Team off on Leg (1) with a time of 27.33 and he was followed by five Legs which all improved the position of the team by a number of places after every Leg. On Leg (2) it was Sean Procter in 27.15 followed by John Chaplin on Leg (3) in 26.35, Leg (4) Allan Hartley in a time of 29.00, Paul Jeffries on leg (5) recording a time of 27.13 and the fastest Leg of the Team was run by Danny Maynard (25.56) on Leg (6).

           

Great to see a whole lot of Harriers out in the Junior Races and team maanaged by Chris Thompson, Danny Teare, Michael Sharp and Andrew Knowles who had also team managed for the North West Relays at Delamere.

Girls team manager – Michael Sharp – commented at the endo fhte day A perfect day to race at Sportscity and The girls did themselves proud.They all got there in plenty of time warmed up together with smiles on their faces.We had a couple of the girls who had been Ill this week,one didn’t make it and wasn’t fit to run today and Rebecca who came did amazing to help her team mates out.Very proud of them all and they should be proud of themselves.With the Cross country season coming soon the girls will turnout in force and I can see a great season ahead for them all”.

Boys team manager – Chris Thompson had similar thoughts as he told us after the Junior Races had been completed This time around only having three teams to manage made it all easier, all my lads turned up in plenty of time allowing me to relax and enjoy every minute of it all. There was some team changes from last time at Delamere but looking results it all worked fine, I know Ben wasn’t keen to go first but showed he was more than capable of doing so and the relays are great for this helping them bring out their strengths, Issac ran a fantastic third leg helping his team close a few places so overall the lads did great and I know it’s tough for them but I hope they all enjoyed it. We were of of only two teams who were able to field three teams on the day which shows how good the cross country will be when we can show our strength in numbers”.

Thirty teams in the U17 Men’s Race which included two teams form the Harriers. The ‘A’ Team saw Jamie Teare lead off on leg (1) coming home in 28th spot in a time of 13.44 followed by Sam Hodkinson on Leg (2) who clcoked 12.35 and gained back five mre places before handing over to Matt Ramsden who ran 11.51 – the 11th fastest leg of the day in the U17 men – brining the team home in 13th and another improvement ten places. Our ‘B’ Team came 30th with Tom Betty running 15.15 on Leg (1), Findlay Sullivan running the fastest on Leg (2) with 13.43 and Harry Wilkin clocking 14.19 on Leg (3).

           

Nineteen teams contested the U17 Women’s race which had one team from the Hrriers competing. Running the 15th fastest Leg of the day, Amy Davies led the team off with a time of 14.10, followed by Hollie Oldham on Leg (2) with a time of 16.34 and Chloe Gardner on Leg (3) with 18.45 leaving the team in 17th place.

     

Two Boys Teams were in the thirty seven strong team field in the U15’s whcih saw the ‘A’ team finish in 24th spot consisting of Hayden Mecer on the first Leg (12.13), handing over to George Whittaker on leg (2) running a time of 13.12 and Kyle Taylor-Pomfret on the final Leg clcoking 13.02. Our ‘B’ Team came in 36th with Zac Walmsley running a time of 12.36 on Leg (1), Rory Teare (14.30 on Leg (20) and Sebastian Burton (14.43) on the last Leg.

               

The Harriers ran two Teams in the U15 Girls who finished 24th and 42nd. The ‘A’ Team was led off by Eleesha Charnley with a 13.09 clocking followed by Sophie Stanworth on Leg (2) in 14.53 and Hollie Cubbon running a time of 14.31 on the final leg. Rebecca Ramsden who ran to support the team not feeling well, led off the ‘B’ Team on Leg (1) with a time of 16.11 and backed up by Molly Nicholls on Leg (2) in 15.57 and Eleanor Allsop on Leg (3) with a time of 17.28.

                 

Dexta Thompson brought the U13 Boys home in 10th place after a first Leg run of 13.05, before Theo Watson in his debut season clocked 13.24 on Leg (2) to drop to 13th position. Isaac Butler had a cracking run on the final Leg to run the 6th fastest Leg of all the U13 Boys (12.17) to help the team finish in 7th spot overall out of 37 teams. The ‘B’ Team did really well too finishing 16th overall and led off by Ben Livesey, also in his debut season as he clocked 13.28 on the first leg  and backed up by Umair Rafiq on Leg (2) with a time of 13.47 and Codie Dewhurst who clocked 13.20 on the last Leg. The ‘C’ Team ran solidly, led off by Saul Sharp on leg (1) with 15.06, Lewis Hardman another first season debuatant on Leg (2) running a time of 16.25 and Stephen Alberts on the last leg (14.43).

              

     

The U13 Girls featured forty two teams and among them, two from Blackburn Harriers. Just forty four seconds in total spearated the ‘A’ and ‘B’ Teams with the ‘A’ team placing  23rd overall in a combined time of 44.36 and the ‘B’ team 27th in 45.20.

Kiera Booth came home in 38th place after Leg (1) with a time of 15.32, after which Caroline Wood worth picked up seven places to move the team to 31st with a time of 14.42 and followed by the fastest leg run by Kate Cookson (14.22) which took another seven places. Keira Haxton ran the 2nd fastest leg of the U13 Girls as she clocked 14.23 on the first leg, handing over to Lucy Ramsden who ran 15.12 and followd don the last leg by Isabelle Hartley running a time of 15.13.

               

Due to illness the third U13 Girls team was incomplete but that didn’t stop Amelia Burton and Kady Thompson whop wanted to run irrespective and clocked times of 14.41 and 16.17 respectively, so well done to both of them.

Suunto Adventure Triathlon Series

 

Featuring the famous Slateman, Snowman and Sandman triathlon races, the series is one of Europe’s best loved collection of adventure races. Jack Hindle won the first (Slateman) and the second (Snowman) of the three races and entered the Sandman at the weekend, looking to win the whole Series.

RESULTS

Jack finished 2nd on the day but won the overall Series which was his main aim at the start of the season. He had the second fastest Swim, the fourth fastest bike ride and the fastest run of the day to come home in a total time of 2hr 28.15 behind the winner who clocked 2hr 24.26. Afterwards, Jack spoke to the Harriers about the Series and the difference between amateur and professional competition saying 2018 has been a fantastic season for me. Multiple race wins and an overall national series title, is more than I could have hoped for. I’ve had to work hard all year and it certainly hasn’t been an easy task. It’s a stepping stone on a long journey. I’ve been asked throughout the year, whether I have intentions to turn professional as a triathlete. But the bottom line is, I have to be extremely realistic. If I did go into the professional fields, how competitive would I be. How much money would I actually make. At this moment in time, I do myself any justice and would just get swallowed up in the professional ranks, not doing myself justice, sponsors justice and most of all I don’t think I would enjoy myself. This isn’t me saying I’m afraid of the competition or afraid of losing, but professional fields are for the professional athletes. And for me if you can’t go with the pace of the swim/bike or run. Then there’s no point in you being there. Yesterday proved that to me, racing against a newly registered professional, and still being just under 4 minutes back, says to me I am not ready to make the transition. I’ve got a career to establish first, which will allow me to hopefully one day, achieve a dream. But for now it’s back to running around a muddy park somewhere in Lancashire, away from the glitz and glamour of triathlon. Loving every second of a sport that has become part of me. Thanks to the Club for all the support”.