This years Northern Indoor U17, U20 & Senior Track & Field Championships were held at the EIS in Sheffield over the weekend of January 14/15th featuring quite a number of Blackburn Harriers in the line ups and what a weekend they produced.
(RESULTS)
On Day One in the U17 men’s 60m Sprints, the Club had five athletes entered with one in each of the four opening Heats. Jacob Fisher clocked 7.46 (5th) in the first Heat, Daniel Nuttall ran 7.28 for 2nd in Heat 2, Charlie Unsworth won Heat 3 in a new PB time of 7.21, Harrison Allcock clocked 7.60 (3rd) in Heat 4 and Henry Harwood placed 2nd with a new PB in Heat 5 (7.62). On to the semi-finals – three in all – and there were wins for Daniel Nuttall in the first clocking 7.23, a win for Charlie Unsworth in the 2nd semi-final in 7.21 alongside Harrison Allcock running himself a new PB of 7.58 in 7th spot, and in the 3rd semi-final Jacob Fisher clocked 7.47 in 3rd with Hanry Harwood running another new PB in 6th (7.61). On to the Final which produced a Gold and Bronze medal for the Harriers – Charlie Unsworth breaking a Club record – set by Ian Sudall at Cosford on 12 January 1974 (7.2) – as he won this years Northern Championships in a new PB time of 7.16 along with team mate Daniel Nuttall taking the Bronze in a time of 7.24. Millee Schofield in her first year as an U17 – as a number of the athletes were from the Harriers – went in the final Heat 5 of the 60m clocking 8.16 in 2nd spot before going on to the semi-finals featuring three races, running the same time again of 8.16 to place 4th in the 2nd semi.
(60 Video) — (60m Video) — (60m Video) – (60m Video)
L-R Judith Temperton (Northern Athletics President – David Addo-Boateng – Charlie Unsworth – Daniel Nuttall
U17 Kara Dacosta ran in Heat one of three Heats in the 300m taking the win in Heat 1 with a time of 41.328 before going on to the Final later tha day where she smashed her pervious best in clocking a new PB of 39.89 to win the Gold Medal and go to the top of the National Rankings. This was the 2nd Gold Medal of the day for the Harriers and more were to follow. U20 Ben Boocock entered the 400m – the first time he had run the distance Indoors – being drawn in the second Heat where he ran 54.654 which was faster than his outdoor personal best by just over a tenth. In the U17 Men’s 400m Oliver Palk was drawn in the second of three Heats and clocked 56.091 also in his first attempt at the distance Indoors.
L-R Judith Temperton (Northern Athletics President – Casey Musgrave – Kara Dacosta – Eleanor Hartley
Moving on to middle distance and the Women’s U20 1500m which had just three athletes in a straight Final ending in a comfortable win for Abigail Stratton in a time of 4.34.23. U17 Oliver Gill went in the 1500m – a race again featuring just three athletes in which Oliver took 2nd place for the Silver Medal in a time of 4.20.33 and his first time Indoors over the distance and the fifth Medal of the day at that point. In the U20 Men’s 1500m Dexta Thompson went in a with a personal best of 3.59.40 outdoors and ran a cracking race to take the win and the Gold Medal in a time of 3.59.36 and again his first time over the distance Indoors. David Holman finished in 5th place clocking 4.10.58.
L-R Shen Wigfield-Turner – Abigail Stratton – Jess Sails
L-R – Oliver Giill – Cole McAndrew – Daniel Reeve
L-R Christopher Perkins – Dexta Thompson – Henry Cullen
After winning four Northern Titles and Gold Medals, plus Silver and Bronze Medals on Day One, the Harriers were hopeful that the medals would keep coming – and come they did. The U17 Men’s 200m featured five Heats resulting in wins for Charlie Unsworth in Heat 1 (23.60), a win for Daniel Nuttall in Heat 2 (23.88), 5th spot for Henry Harwood (25.32 ) in the third Heat and a win for Jacob Fisher in Heat 5 in a new PB time of 24.16. On to the semi-finals – with three races – Charlie Unsworth won the first in a new PB of 22.94, Jacob Fisher clocked 24.20 (3rd) in the second semi whilst Daniel Nuttall placed 2nd in the third race in 23.68. In the Final there was no stopping Charlie Unsworth has he ran superbly for another new PB of 22.65 in winning the Gold Medal and his second Northern Title of the weekend. Daniel Nuttall came 6th in the Final in a time of 24.48.
L-R Oliver Nunn – Charlie Unsworth – Alfie Lane
In the Field Kara Dacosta added another Medal to her weekend when she took the Silver Medal in 2nd place after a clerance of 1.65m – making it 8 in total for the Club at that point of the Championships – after going on to the Shot Putt where she threw 6.21m in 14th position. In the U17 Women’s 200m there were 8 Heats in total which saw bottom of age Millee Schofield clock 27.00 in 2nd place in Heat 5, qualifying for the semi-final, being drawn in Race 4 and clocking 26.47 in 2nd spot. Three 200m races in one day saw Millee qualify for the Final where she clocked 26.76 in 6th place.
L-R Judith Temperton (Northern Athletics President – Kara Dacosta – Emily Marshall – Amy Hewitt
The U20 Men’s 800m had four Heats with a Blackburn Harriers in each – Hayden Mercer running 2.05.28 (4th) in Heat 1, Thomas Monks also placing 4th in Heat 2 in a cracking debut time indoors or outdoors of 2.02.92, Codie Dewhurst placing 5th in Heat 3 and running well to be just a fraction outside his personal best in clocking 2.03.55 and Dexta Thompson running 1.59.59 to win the last Heat. In the Final which Dexta had qualified for, he came 5th in a time of 1.58.14, not far off running two seconds faster than in his Heat. In the U20 Women’s 800m there were nine athletes split into two Heats resulting in Abigail Stratton, looking for her second title of the weekend, winning Heat 2 in 2.15.42. Abigail’s personal best going into the Championships was 2.12.71 run at Trafford in a Grand Prix, but in the final she absolutley destroyed that when she won her second title of the weekend in a new PB time of 2.08.39. David Holman was one of just three athletes in the U20 Men’s 3000m and having an outdoor personal best of 8.58.20. In the Final he took a massive 8 seconds off that time to win another title and Gold Medal in a new PB of 8.50.29. The Senior Men’s 3000m Final featured 13 athletes, one of whom was Matt Ramsden who won the close fought race in a time of 8.36.99 from Hallamshire’s James McCrae in 2nd (8.37.31) and Salford’s Ewan Wheelwright in 3rd (8.39.98).
(Codie Dewhurst 800m Heat Video)
L-R – Ava Lloyd – Abigail Stratton – Lois Creasey
L-R Judith Temperton (Northern Athletics President – Christopher Perkins – David Holman – Tj Jones
L-R Judith Temperton (Northern Athletics President – James McCrae – Matt Ramsden – Ewan Wheelwright
L-R Dexta Thompson – Abigail Stratton – Oliver Gill
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After winning the Ribble Valley 10k on December 27th and breaking the Women’s race record with her 31.17, Jess Warner-Judd went to the US last week to race the Aramco Houston Half Marathon as did her husband Rob Warner-Judd.(RESULTS)
Jess went into this race – only her second over the distance – with a personal best time of 67.52 which was a top debut at the Houston race in 2022. Knocking over half a minute off that time, Jess finished in 3rd place in the Women’s race with a new PB of 67.19 behind Emily Sisson in 2nd (66.52) and the winner Hiwot Gebremaryam (66.28). Rob was making his debut over the distance and laid a marker down for future races as he ran a really good time of 69.36 and 76th overall.
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After a very good performance in Poland last October in the UIPM 2022 Pentahlon Junior World Championships held in Poland, Blackburn Harriers Ben Makin was out again competing for Ireland last weekend – January 14/15th – competing in the British Tetrathlon Championships at the Uinversity of Bath and finishing 6th overall with a points total of 1160 and in front of Olympic Gold Meadlist Joseph Choong (9th). (RESULTS)
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The Mid Lancs Cross Country League held its latest and fourth meeting of the season at Lawson Playing Fields in Blackpool on Saturday January 14th just a week after the Lancashire Cross Country Championships were held at Witton Park — (RESULTS). The rain for the most part held off but the brick wall wind didn’t, resulting in the Harriers tent being destroyed as the side of it was ripped apart. Once again huge thanks to the Officials and Marshals who were in attendance the whole day.
Theo Addy was the first up for the Harriers in the U11 Boys race placing 17th out of 43 with a time of 8.59 followed by four girls competing in the U13 race – headed by Evie Fort in 20th spot (10.11), Lyra Krige in 22nd, Charlotte Smith in 28th running 10.37 and Charlotte Rothwell running a time of 11.54 in 37th place – the team finishing 7th overall. Liam Bennison and George Holman represented the Club in the U13 Boys race and had quite a battle between themselves – Liam taking 8th place in 13.24 with George just one second behind in 9th (13.25).
Theo Addy (2240)
Evie Fort (191)
Lyra Krige (2190)
Charlotte Smith (201)
George Holman & Liam Bennison
The U15 Girls race had the team finishing in 4th position overall with Hannah Davies placing 21st out of the 35 strong field in 14.53, supported by team mates Tamzin Osborne in 24th (15.29) and Freya Neild in 29th with a time of 16.07. 4th place too for the U15 Boys featuring 32 athletes with Matthew Smith leading the team in 9th spot (15.58) and backed up by Jack Wood in 14th position running 16.24 and Alex Rothwell (25th) with his time of 18.06. Umair Rafiq ran 25.31 in the U17 Men’s race finishing in 9th place – just 21 athletes lining up for this one.
Hannah Davies (217)
Freya Neild (221) – Tamzin Osborne (222)
Matthew Smith
Jack Wood
Alex Rothwell
Umair Rafiq
The Senior races had 121 runners in the Women’s and 202 in the Men’s Race. Amy Davies had one of her best runs to finish 2nd in the Senior Women’s race in a time of 26.00 behind Kirsty Maher the winner in 25.48. Both these women were U20’s which meant they finished 1st and 2nd in the U20’s race which had six in total. V50 Lindsay Davies came home in 26th spot running 30.47. Sam Hodkinson had a very good run in the Senior Men’s race placing 10th overall in 34.47 and 3rd U20 with Mark Chippendale (V50) coming home in a time of 38.16 in 44th spot.
Amy Davies (260)
Lindsay Davies (159)
Sam Hodkinson (250)
Mark Chippendale (119)
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Helen Leigh moves house, changes location but still runs as strongly and as competitively as ever. Now living and working in Scotland, Helen was selected for the North of Scotland team to compete in the Cross Challenge match in Perth on January 14th which also hosted the Inter-District race. Helen finished as 4th V35 in a time of 33.58. (RESULTS)
Helen Leigh (174)
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Sunday January 8th saw the third of this years Sale Indoor Series at Sportcity taking place with three more fixtures to be held on January 29th (Closing date for Entries 25.01.2023); February 12th (Closing date for Entries 06/02/2023) and March 12th (Closing date for Entries 08/03/2023).
A number of Blackburn Harriers competed at the event – (Sportcity Indoor Results) – and again, as in previous fixtures, produing some good results and performances. First year U17 Jacob Fisher started off well in the 60m placing 2nd in his Heat with a new PB time of 7.56 and backing that up in the next Heat 2nd year U17 Harrison Allcock, equaled his PB time of 7.70 in 4th spot. First year U17 Imogen Crooks equaled her previous best performance over 60m finishing in 3rd place (8.68) after which 2nd year Isabelle Hartley equaled her best time of 9.35 in 5th. First year U15 Abdolih Shriha was the last Harrier to compete over the distance, his debut over 60m, clocking 8.48 in 3rd postion.
U20’s Samuel Mutombo and Lucas Woodhouse took on the 200m resulting in Samuel placing 2nd with a time of 25.50 whilst Lucas placed 3rd in 26.05 in his first run over the distance and his first race since January 2022. Jacob Fisher made it a double new PB for himself on the day as he clocked 24.32 in 2nd spot in the Heat – an improvement of half a second. Isabelle Hartley ran 31.41 in 3rd Imogen Crooks came 3rd in her Heat after which Zoe Green opened her Indoor season with a 31.76 clocking in 2nd place. Abdolih Shriha was another young athlete running the 200m for the first time which went well for him as he posted a win in his Heat clocking 28.20.
First year U20 Codie Dewhurst set himself a new PB time of 1.28.79 (6th) in a Heat covering seniors, U23’s and U20’s — (RACE VIDEO). U17 Kara Dacosta had a cracking day in the High Jump – her pool consisting of male and female athletes – when she cleared a new PB height of 1.67m, placing 5th overall.
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Round Sheffield Run: Winter Edition
On January 8th Mark Taylor took on the Round Sheffield Run featuring over 1500 runners .(RESULTS). Mark placed 113th overall and spoke to the Club about the day after the race, telling us that he was “Overall 113th out of 1567 finishers (including the pairs entries). It’s an 11 stage race (4th time I’ve done it) covering 20km with 600m of ascent…so basically a big interval session on a mix of trail, mud and tarmac. Considering I hadn’t done any specific prep for it and not done my usual amount of miles recently I was very happy with how it went in really testing conditions.”
