Modern Pentathlon World Cup in Sofia
Samantha Murray had a really strong finish at the World Cup event in Sofia at the weekend, finishing 11th making up ten places as she moved from 21st at one stage through to just outside the top ten finishers. Sam set off with a seasons best swim of 2.11.85 which put her level with the other leading athletes and a strong run/shoot from her ensured she gained all those places at the end of the competition. Sam now moves on to the British and European Championships.
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Diamond League – May 25-26th
Holly Bradshaw was competing again at the weekend, this time in Oregon at the Diamond League after she finished in 2nd spot at the previous Diamond League event in Doha clearing 4.64m. It didn’t go as well this time for her – clearing 4.35 for 8th place.
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BMC Grand Prix at Watford – Saturday May 26th
After smashing his 3000m personal best the week before at Trafford, Rob Warner ran the 1500m at the Watford BMC, placing 5th in a time of 3.54.38 commenting after the race to the Club that “it was quite breezy down here which didn’t help………I never really got into it and onto the pace I wanted. The pacemaker took us through about 4seconds too slow through 800 which led to the whole field bunching and we actually had a few fallers with 400 to go. I was also in lane 2 for about 80% of the race so that definitely didn’t help, overall it wasn’t my best day!”
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Mid Lancs T & F League at Hyndburn – Saturday May 26th
Another hot, but windy day for the athletes at Hyndburn – the wind having an impact on all events as sprinters ran into the wind as well as the middle distance athletes. It was a day when new personal bests were at a premium, however, it didn’t prevent some pretty good competition in a number of the events from just short of sixty Blackburn Harriers competing on the Bank Holiday weekend and even entering three Relay Teams in the U13boys, U13 Girls and U15 Girls.
SPRINTS
Dominic Bretherton and Daniel Whittaker went in the Senior Men’s 100m with 11.5 and 13.7 seconds respectively whilst in the U17 men’s 100m – Ben Whittaker clocked 12.4 in Heat 1 going onto run 2nd place in Heat 2 of the 200m clocking 25.7. New member Tope Oladipo took 2nd place in Heat 2 after an almost dead heat with a time of 12.2 – the same time being given to the winner and a time which was a new PB by seven tenths. There was another cracking race in the U15 boys 100m which saw Ethan Downes given the same time as the winner of 12.5 as both athletes strained on the line to get the dip. U15 Boys Sebastian Burton had a go at the 100 and 200m for the first time ever running 15.7 and 31.9 respectively. U13 Tobi Oladipo – Tope’s brother – who has recently joined the Harriers and has already shown his ability in the UKYDL, ran into 2nd position in his Heat 2 with a time of 13.6 whilst Codie Dewhurst finished placed 2nd also in Heat 3 (15.7). The U13 Boys 200m saw Isaac Butler finish 2nd in 31.0, Daniel Smith 3rd in 32.6 and Umair Rafiq – in his first ever attempt at the distance – 5th with a time of 35.9 – all in Heat 2.
Bailey Madden didn’t let the headwind impact upon her taking yet another win double as she came 1st in the U17 Women’s 100m (13.0) and 1st in the 200m (27.0). Megan Tippett, also running in Bailey’s 100m Heat clocked 13.8 for 3rd position. U17’s Liberty Thompson and Chloe Gardner ran Heat 2 of the 200m in 32.2 (4th) and 33.4 (5th). In the U15 Girls Sprints, Amy Wiggans came 5th in Heat 1 in 13.9 with Abigail Armas 3rd in Heat 3 in a time of 14.0. The two girls then ran the 200m with Amy coming home in 4th (28.6) and Abigail 6th clocking a time of 29.9. Eleesha Charnley ran the fastest time of all four 200m Heats as she won Heat 2 in 27.7 along with Sophie Stanworth tackling the 200m for the first time in Heat 3 and recording a time of 30.5 in 2nd spot. Heat 4 saw Harriers Leah Hoole and Rebecca Ramsden finish one and two with new PB’s for both of them as they both clocked the same time of 29.5. The U13 Girls 100m had six Heats which saw Kate Cookson clock 14.6 in Heat 1 (5th) – Amelia Burton in Heat 2 with 15.1 in 4th place – Elizabeth Birchall run 17.0 in Heat 3 (6th) – Keira Booth in Heat 4 trying the distance for the first time and placing 5th (16.1) and Keira Haxton and Eva Knowles in Heat 6 running respective times of 16.3 (4th) and 16.3 (5th). In the 200m – a delighted and very happy Amelia Burton won her Heat 2 in 32.0 as Keira Haxton completed her sprint double with a 33.7 (4th) run in Heat 3.
THROWS
U20 Anthony Kent throwing the senior Weight and Tony Balko in the Shot and Discus saw Anthony finish 5th in the Discus with 32.20m, 4th in the Shot Putt with 10.78m and 2nd in the Javelin with a distance of 32.00 – John Cookson made his debut for the Club in the Javelin coming in just behind Anthony in 3rd spot with a throw of 30.59m. Tony, who has been throwing really well this year and setting some personal bests along the way, placed 5th in the Shot Putt with 9.09m, 7th in the Discus (30.23m) and 2nd in the Hammer with a distance of 32.71m. U15 Matthew Heywood contested three Throws events starting with the Hammer where he placed 2nd with a throw of 32.64m, then came 4th in the Discus with 26.22m and set a new PB in the Javelin by over two metres of 20.75m (10th). Keiran Carroll and George Whittaker were also competing in the U15 Boys Throws with Keiran finishing 5th in the Discus (22.11m) and 5th again in the Javelin with 27.18m – George came in 7th in the Javelin with a throw of 23.35m.
U17 Abigail Brown set a new PB in the Discus as she won with a throw of 25.46, over a metre further than she had thrown previously before going on to place 3rd in the Hammer with a distance of 36.79m. Liberty Thompson threw 13.61m in the Javelin. Nicky Saunders had a very solid day in three throws events taking 2nd place in the Discus with 24.05, 4th in the Javelin with 24.24m and 4th again in the Hammer (24.41m). U13 Girls were out in numbers in the Throws events with five of the 12 strong Shot Putt field from the Harriers – Aimee Taberner competing for the first time for the Club placed 3rd with 6.77m followed by Tilly Pollard throwing a new PB of 6.52m in 4th, Kate Cookson also throwing a new PB of 5.85m in 7th and Eva Knowles trying it out for the first time (5.67m) in 8th. Caroline Woodworth won the U13 Girls Discus with a new PB by over two metres (20.14m) followed by Aimee Taberner, again 3rd with 15.88m and two more youngsters trying the event for the first time ever – Charlotte Clapham in 6th (13.86m) and Tilly Pollard 7th (12.33m). On to the Javelin where Caroline Woodworth placed 4th out of thirteen with a distance of 20.30m with Aimee Taberner in 6th (17.59m), Kady Thompson with a new PB of 11.47m in 11th and Tilly Pollard in 13th (8.52m).
MIDDLE DISTANCE
Joe Gebbie ran the Senior Men’s 800m and wasn’t far off his personal best as he battled the wind to run a time of 2.06.8 in 4th spot. Ethan Joyce set a new 400m PB of 55.4 – three seconds than he has run previously – to win the U17 Men’s race. There was a cracking finish to the U17 Men’s 1500m race as Sam Hodkinson ran Ryan Heneghan down in the final straight to take the win in 4.29.8 – the same time also given to 2nd place. There were new PB’s for Ethan Barbarewicz and Joseph Joyce in the U15 Boys 800m with Ethan cutting three seconds off as he placed 9th in 2.28.5 and Joseph finished 10th in 2.29.4 – an even bigger new PB by five seconds. George Whittaker ran in the same race coming home 6th in 2.26.7 as did Kyle Taylor-Pomfret (11th) clocking a time of 2.30.7. U15 David Holman opted for the 1500m’s and ran a good race, finishing strongly into the wind to place 2nd in 5.08.6. Six U13 Boys ran the 800m in two Heats – Heat 1 had four Harriers competing – Theo Watson placing 3rd in 2.32.9 in his debut over the distance for the Club, Codie Dewhurst 5th in 2.41.4, Saul Sharp 8th in 2.41.9 and Umair Rafiq (10th) with a time of 2.43.9. Heat 2 saw Daniel Smith take 2nd spot in a time of 2.45.7 with Harry Sambrook in 6th (2.55.2).
U17 Chloe Gardner had never run a track race before and was nervous about it but enjoyed her run to clock a debut time of 3.07.3 in here first ever 800m race. Four U15 Girls took on the 800m and one the 1500m. Heat 1 of the 800m saw Sophie Stanworth finish strongly and again into the wind in 3rd place (2.27.7) with Leah Hoole in 6th spot (2.36.5) and Rebecca Ramsden in 7th (2.37.3). Molly Nicholls got boxed in Heat 2 of the 800m but still managed to finish strongly to clock a time of 2.46.2 in 5th position. Eleesha Charnley ran the perfect race in the 1500m tucking until 120m to go when she surged past the athlete in front of her to win by three seconds in a time of 5.20.8 and a new PB by eight seconds! Not to be outdone, the U13 Girls also posted some new middle distance PB’s with Kate Cookson coming across the line in 2nd place in 2.38.7 – six seconds faster than her previous best – and Keira Haxton just one place further back in 3rd also setting a new PB of 2.38.3. Keira Booth and Eva Knowles also ran the race with Keira in 7th (2.49.5) and Eva 12th (3.04.6).
It was one, two, three in the 3000m as Thomas Marchant won it with a new PB of 9.36.3 just two seconds in front of Chris Davies in 2nd (9.38.8) and Karl Billington in 3rd clocking 9.44.0. Amy Davies made her debut over the distance and ran a time of 11.33.0 to win the Female Race.
JUMPS
U15 Rory Teare was just below his personal best as he placed 8th in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.40m. U15 Sebastian Burton tried out the Long Jump for the first time jumping 2.82m and U13 Isaac Butler leapt to 3.75m in the Long Jump – 8th out of fifteen competitors, whilst U17 Liberty Thompson set a new PB in the High Jump clearing 1.45m in 2nd place. With twenty seven U13 Girls in the Long Jump it must have been a daunting task for the Officials – Elizabeth Birchall finishing 16th with a leap of 3.52. More new PB’s in the U13 Girls High Jump which saw Amelia Burton clear 1.25m in 8th place for a 10cm new PB, Kady Thompson in 11th with a 5cm new PB of 1.15m and Charlotte Clapham trying her hand for the very first time – 10th with a clearance of 1.20m.
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Catforth 5k – Saturday May 26th
A good day for Victoria Mousley as she won the Catforth 5k in a new PB time of 18.44 in finishing 9th overall and that after taking a last minute decision to run as she explained to the Club “Only decided to enter this on the day to see what 5k shape I am in. I was hoping to do 1830 so a little over what I wanted but a tiny pb nonetheless. Great event. Lovely goody bag for all. Low key fun event on a decent course”.
Daniel Balshaw was also running – only his third race since October 2017 – finishing in 5th spot overall in a time of 18.09. Afterwards, Dan spoke to the Club commenting that it was his “First run in a Harriers vest after my transfer from Barlick and after what can be described as a personally testing 18 months, I’ve managed to find that mojo for running again and started to ramp up the miles at the start of May, so early stages yet, Myself and Andy (Coach) wanted to see how I faired over a 5k I knew, in the past on Catforth I’ve dipped under 17min, after a warm up with Lee Parrington it appeared it might be a struggle, windy and still 22c, nevertheless we got on with it, first mile I felt okay sitting in third, but about half a mile later that changed and the last mile and a half was a grind, at the two mile point where you turn into Catforth, I had a quick check back behind me and could see Paul Muller closing, knowing he’d been in fine form and having Mr Fish’s and Mr Sutton’s words of wisdom from earlier in the day in my mind (don’t get beaten by Paul or any Hipsters) I just focused on grinding out the last mile and managed to hold Paul off by 5 seconds to finish fifth, Lee finished first in 17:01 some 30-40seconds off what his current form and himself suggested he should be hitting, a few more weeks of training and hitting the miles and hopefully I will find some form, Well done to Victoria who took the women’s race win”.
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Burnley Lions 10k – Friday May 25th
Latest race in the Burnley & Pendle Grand Prix took place on Friday night with the athletes taking on the tough 10k course at Colne. Won by Danny Collinge in 34.17 two Blackburn Harriers were also competing – Gary Pearse (V50) coming home in 70th place in the two hundred and twenty strong field clocking 43.06 and 4th V50 out of twenty five running the race. V40 Paul Whittaker came home in 138th spot in a time of 50.45.
