Harriers Athletes were out at the Championships representing their respective Town Schools Teams and in a number of cases, were looking to win their event and set the English Schools qualifying standard for the Championships being held in Birmingham on Friday / Saturday July 11th and 12th
Full Results HERE
Joe Pearse took the Senior Boys High Jump with a leap of 1.94m to secure the standard. Rebecca Orrell won the Hammer (46.02m) and achieved the National Standard, whilst Junior Boy Jacob Roberts took his age group title (39.01m), passing the ES Standard by just over a metre. Connor Makin won the 400m Hurdles (56.8sec) and cemented his place in the squad for the English Schools Championships having already achieved the time. He then went on to win the flat 400m in 52.3sec from Blackburn Harriers team mate Morgan Philips in second place (53.9sec). Archie Braysford in the 100m Inter Boys Race set a new PB of 11.3sec in the heat and then ran a tenth faster in the final (11.2sec) to gain the qualifying standard. Jake Almond in the 200m took a good third place with a time of 23.3secs.
Other Harriers athletes also had very good performances on the day with PB’s and Championship titles. Connor Davison (IB Hammer) added two and half metres to his PB throwing 29.87m to finish runner up in his age category. Katie Buckingham (SG 400m Hurdles) ran a new PB of 66.7sec and took the title. Ross Liddle (61.0sec) and Huzaifa Hanif (64.2sec) were the only two competitors in the IB 400m Hurdles ace which saw Ross coming home first to become Lancashire Schools Champion.
Ben Aspinall finished 2nd in the Long Jump but jumped to a new PB of 6.19m adding 19cm to his previous best set just a couple of weeks ago. He then went on to win the Triple Jump with a solid performance of (12.65m). It took an English Schools qualifying standard to beat Morgan Angland who set another PB in the 80m Hurdles and in really good form, running 12.2sec for a second place finish. Liz Ashcroft also had a really good Race in the 75m Hurdles coming second in a really tight Race and setting a time of 12.7sec just one tenth off her PB. Polly Pearse won the IG High Jump with 1.50m from Amber Swinnerton of Blackpool in second, both clearing the same height, but Polly winning on count back and Natasha Mols in third place (1.40m). Sister Esme Pearse also finished 2nd with a jump of 1.40m in the JG High Jump. New Blackburn Harrier member Oliver Pearson-Moore competed in the IB Javelin and threw 26.30m.
Cameron Massey who has set no fewer than nine PB’s in different events this year, took the JB 80m Hurdles in 12.0sec which equals the English Schools qualifying standard. Cameron has already beaten that time in other competitions. Brother Nicholas Massey, also running for the Chorley Schools Town Team qualified for the JB 100m final with a fourth placed 12.4sec. In the final, he ran 12.6sec.
In the IB 3000m Joe Monk finished second to Matthew Barnes of Pendle with a time of 9.38.8 which cut nearly 24 seconds off his previous PB set in 2013. Grace Handley was a lone front runner in the Inter Girls 3000m, winning in a time of (10.51.2). Robert Buckley back in competition and free from exams and racing for only the third time this year finished second in the SB 1500m (4.32.4) whilst in the IB 1500m Byron Abbott placed fifth with a time of 4.33.3 in only his fourth outing this year. Over in the JG 1500m, Maddie Elliott made a great effort to win the race and had a real battle with the eventual winner Syd Bairstow from Blackpool. Maddie finished second with a new PB of 5.09.0 nearly two seconds faster. Natalya Irvine finished just behind Maddie in third place with a good time of 5.12.4 in her first ever 1500m track race and Rose Abott also ran for Blackburn with Darwen Schools in a time of 6.01.7.
Sophie Taylor was another winner taking the SG 100m Hurdles (17.2sec); Olivia Brooks just missed out on third place in IG Long Jump with 4.92m setting a new PB as she creeps closer to the 5.0m mark. Jane Saothong missed a PB by a few centimetres when she jumped 4.00m in the IG Long Jump. In the IB Long Jump Caleb Lee hit a big new PB with 5.71m for a fourth placed finish.
