Blackburn Harriers athletes have been busy over this last few days at the Northern U20/Senior Track & Field Championships held at Middlesborough over two days, at the Lancashire Schools held at Uclan in Preston and at the Junior Lancashire Fell Championships held at Cowpe. The wind was blowing at Middlesboprough over the two days of the Northern T&F Championships but that didn’t deter the athletes from producing very good performances over the weekend. One of the highlights was the running of sprinter Charlie Unsworth who won Silver on Saturday in the U20 Men’s 100m with a time of 11.22 into a headwind of minus 1.8 before turning that into Gold on Sunday. In the semi-Final Charlie took the win in a time of 22.19 followed by a quality run in the Final – clocking a new PB of 21.75 in to a head wind of minus 0.7 to take the win and the Northern title. On Saturday Charlotte Williams took the second medal of the day as she placed 3rd, winning the Bronze medal with a throw of 57.66m alongside Matthew Heywood featuring in the Senior Men’s Hammer, narrowly missing out on the podium by 65 cms as he placed 4th behind the winner – Eddie Jeans (61.89m). Next up was the Senior Men’s 1500m Final resulting in a Silver Medal for Matt Ramsden who just missed out on the Gold by 17 one hundreths as he ran 3.55.88 behind the winner – Henry Johnson (3.55.71); And, in the U20 men’s Final there were two more Medals to add to the tally for Blackburn Harriers as Dexta Thompson won the race and the title in a time of 3.59.90 followed in the Silver Medal position by team mate Daniel Smith who clocked 4.02.56.

Saturday Results —  Sunday Results

(Charlie’s 200m Final Video)

Day 2 opened with the U20 Men’s Hammer which sadly only had one athlete – George Willams – who didn’t let that deter him, throwing as he did a new PB of 47.33m, an improvement of over 3m in taking the title. In the 5000m race, U20 and Senior Women went together and included Blackburn Harriers U20 Isabel Holt who had never run a track 5000m previously. Isabel went with the pack of five athletes for around six laps sitting in but then went to the front and upped the pace which was covered immediately by Hoghton’s Charlotte Dillon, also an U20. Dillon took the lead with Isabel tucked in behind and that is how it stayed until the final lap in which Isabel made a move down the back straight, which was again covered by Dillon, but with 200m to go, Isabel increased the pace and pulled away to take the win and the Gold Medal in a debut time of 17.20.02 with Dillon in 2nd place (17.23.45). Ben Makin qualified comfortably for the Final of the Senior Men’s 800m race in 1.57.39 before going on to take 4th spot in the Final with a 1.56.97 clocking.

(David’s 1500m Race Finish)

Saturday opend up with rain before being replaced with wind and sunshine at Uclan in Preston which was the venue for this years Lancashire Schools T&F Championships – athletes hoping to win qualification for the English Schools T&F Championships. Blackburn Harriers had a lot of athletes out on the day, producimng some good performances, especially given the conditions with the wind, resulting in 14 Wins, 10 second and 7 third places An announcement during the day, calling for helpers to ensure the field competitions could go ahead, was a stark reminder of the lack of them and plainly speaking, for parents and spectators to come forward and help out. This is becoming an all to familiar circumstance in track and field meetings and we would call on all parents, former athletes, to consider helping out their club and the sport in general by volunteering to become an Official.

(RESULTS)

(ALL PHOTOS ON BLACKBURN HARRIERS FACEBOOK PAGE)

Taking the events in no particular order, we start off with the 400m for Senior & Interboys run toegther which saw Charlie Clanford take the win in 51.4, just outside the ES standard of 51.1, Jacob Fisher in 3rd (53.5) equaling his personal best and Daniel Bretherton in 4th (54.7). In the Inter Boys 800m Blackburn Harriers had the first four with Logan McCredie taking the win in 2.07.4, Max Belshaw in 2nd (2.09.1), George Ramsden 3rd (2.11.0) and Ethan Cutler 4th clocking 2.14.5. Ben Stratton who has already run the ES qualifying standard won the Senior Boys 1500m in a comfortable 4.05.6 whilst. team mate Oliver Gill who has also run the ES qualifying time, took 2nd in the Inter-Boys 1500m in a time of 4.09.2. In the Junior Boys 1500m Will Grundy came through for 2nd place in a time of 4.36.5, less than second outside his best, and in the strong wind too. Moving up to 3000m Sam Aspey took 2nd spot in the Inter-Boys & Senior Boys combined race with a time of 9.21.0. Jack Baranowski won the Junior Boys 800m in 2.05.1 having already run the ES standard of 2.05 on three occasions prior to the Championships with Eliott Unsworth running 2.23.3 in 7th spot. Four Blackburn Harriers in the Inter Girls 800m resulting in 3rd place for Charlotte Robertshaw (2.27.3), 4th for Isabella Pacelli (2.28.2), 6th for Lottie Smith (2.34.9) and 7th for Lily Green (2.45.5.). Isabella Perry ran 5.28.5 in the Inter Girls 1500m (4th). The Junior Girls 800m had four Blackburn Harriers in the line up – Millie Jordan placing 2nd in 2.19.5, Agatha Taylor 3rd (2.20.9), Lyra Krige 4th in a new PB time of 2.28.6 and Eleanor Woodford 8th in 3.00.5. Three girls in the Junior Girls 1500m featuring 15 runners – Charlotte Smith in 5th (5.05.3) – a new PB by 8 seconds, Emma Robertshaw in 9th (5.14.3), Lottie Hesketh in 10th (5.15.6) – a new PB by 3 seconds.

 

 

On to the Hurdles races and Abdollh Shriha clocked 12.6 in 2nd over the 80m Hurdles, whilst Codie Dewhurst won the 400m Hurdles (62.29) and George Camara won the Inter Boys 400m Hurdles in a new PB time of 64.10, the two age groups being run together. Alisha Lehner went in the Inter Girls 80m Hurdles clocking 13.1 in 3rd spot.

 

 

Heat 1 of the 100m Sprints saw Charlie Palich clock 11.7 to qualify for the Final as did Daniel Nuttall who placed 2nd in his Heat with 11.6. Charlie won the Final in 11.3 having already run 11.15 against the ES standard of 11.1. Jack Duxbury had another good day, winning the Inter-Boys 200m in 25.2. In the Junior Boys 100m George Morris won his Heat in 12.9 Keir Michie won his Heat in 12.4 and then in the Final were part of a 1.2.3 for the Harriers youngsters – George winning in 12.4, Keir 2nd in 11.5 and George Fenton 3rd in 12.7. Caris Peter-Thomas won her Heat of the Junior Girls 200m (28.2) with Bella McCredie in 4th (29.3) and both of them qualifying for the Final in which Caris placed 2nd in 26.3, Isabelle Pawson 7th (29.9) and Bella 8th (30.2). Millie Schofield won her 300m race in 40.9 which was well inside the ES standard alongside team mate Sienna Wareing who took 3rd place in the Final (43.6) which was a new PB, her previous best time being 43.76.

 

 

In the Field events Oliver Palk was the only athlete in the Senior Javelin throwing 43.48m as Loucas Lancashire placed 2nd in the Inter-Boys Javelin with 37.48m and Isabelle Hartley, again the only athlete in the Senior Girls Javelin throwing 17.90m. One of the highlights of the weekend came in the Pole Vault where Tamzin Osborne contesting the Inter Girls event on her own, set a new PB of 3.00m. Olivia Thomasson carried on her winning ways this year taking the win in the Inter Girls Javelin with a new PB of 33.54m. In the Junior Girls Long Jump Isabella Finn came 3rd with a leap of 4.09m as Dana Juma came 2nd in the Junior Girls Shot Putt with a new PB distance of 9.17m.

 

 

A change of terrain now and this time on the Fells at the FRA Junior Championships & Inter-Counties races hosted at Cowpe by Rossendale Harriers which proved to be a tough and windy course. (RESULTS). Two athletes running for Lancashire in the U17 age category – after three weeks out injured Theo Robinson placed 40th overall in the mixed male and female race with a time of 39.50 and 2nd counter for Lancashire, whilst Lottie Hesketh was the first counter home for Lancashire in a time of 42.12 and 13th in the U17 Women’s race and that after running in the 1500m at the Lancashire Schools Championships the day before.

   

Up In Scotland – Helen Leigh – was out racing again after she, in her own words said “after five weeks of rest and 2 weeks of training, think i was in need of a break” – came back in style as part of the team that won the Scottish Trail Championships for Highland Hill Runners and placed 2nd overall in the Women’s race.