We start our latest report for Blackburn Harriers at the Alexandra Stadium in Birmingham where the 2025 British Track & Field Championships took place featuring amongst the contestants, Blackburn Harriers Abigail McAndrew and Matt Ramsden which saw Abigail go in the Women’s 1500m and Matt in the Men’s 5000m. Abigail was drawn in Heat 1 of two Heats and had a good run but just missed out on qualification to the Final as she came home in 6th position win a time of 4.25.88 which followed on from her Silver Medal over 1500m the week previously at the England U20/Senior Championships also held in Birmingham. Post race Abigail told the Club that she was “Really pleased with my run at British champs, it was unfortunate having the disadvantage of the slower first heat however happy with how I ran being able to perform and mix it up with the best, was a great experience“. Matt was racing in the 5000m which contained Olympic and World Championship medalist Josh Kerr – Matt finishing in 10th place out of a race cotaining 20 athletes, in a time of 14.08.54 which was just his third track race of the season. Matt summed up his thoughts when he spoke to the Harriers after race saying “I haven’t had the smoothest of track seasons this year but that being said I am glad to have built some consistency in preparation for the UK champs at the weekend. I had my sights set on a top 10 finish going into the race and I’m happy to come away with that result. It is my first senior champs and it gives me a good starting point to try and improve on in future years”.

(RESULTS) — (ALL PHOTOS)

Abigail McAndrew

Matt Ramsden

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On the same weekend, the Harriers were competing in the third match of this years Northern League West Premier Division at Ellesmere Port, having won the first two matches of the season and looking to win back to back titles. The holidays certainly made a difference to the team with lots of athletes unavailable, which meant other athletes stepping up, taking on more events than they would normally and some competing for the first time in the Premier Division. We cannot speak to highly about the commitment of the athletes, their team spirit and drive to produce the best performance they could. In the end, it all came together as the Harriers took their third consecutive match victory by a very small margin in a fixture that was closely contested throughout the day. The final results saw the team win with Blackburn Harriers on 384.5 points; Team Isle of Man 376.0; West Cheshire 361.0; Sale Harriers 348.0; Trafford AC 314.5;Southport 265.0. Special mention to our Officials team led by Alison Hulme who have been tremdous all season and made sure we fulfilled all of our responsibilities at each Match.

All Photos on Blackburn  Harriers Facebook Page — (HERE 1) — (HERE 2)

Our Throws athletes continue to lead the way in point scoring and getting the team off to a great start. Anthony Kent winning the Hammer (51.40m) and Matthew Heywood taking 2nd in the B (45.66m) kicked off the day followed by Ava Leigh Winning the Women’s Hammer (51.14m) and Charlotte Williams winning the B (49.48m). On to the Shot Putt where Anthony Kent took 2nd in the A with a seasons best 12.17m alongside Matthew Heywood 5th in the B (7.50m) whilst in the Women’s Ava Leigh threw 9.74m in 4th with team mate Isabelle Hartley taking 3rd in the B (7.51m) – the Shot Putt being one of five events that Isabelle covered for the team on the day. In Discus Anthony posted another win with 37.06m with Matthew taking 3rd in the B (23.94m) as Charlotte Williams placed 4th in the A with 24.22m before going on to the Javelin – an event she had never previously done – placing 3rd in the B (15.86m) with Isabelle Hartley taking 3rd spot in the A, throwing 26.18m. One of the throws of the day came from Loucas Lancashire who placed 4th in the A Javelin with a new PB of 40.91m, exceeding his personal best with the 700mg Javelin by close to a metre – and – there was another new PB for Michael Morton as he came 3rd in the B with 33.03m.

Ava Leigh

Anthony Kent

Loucas Lancashire

The points total kept building, this time in middle distance events – Isamel Alvarez El Hassany taking 2nd spot in the 800m A race (1.58.5) being edged out near the line after going for the win after the bell on the first lap whilst in the B race there was another very good race which was won by Hayden Mercer driving to the line and just holding off West Cheshire’s Paul Morrison by a tenth, winning in 2.06.5. Ben Makin and Sam Aspey ran the 1500m – Ben placing 3rd in the A (4.09) alongside team mate Sam placing 2nd in the B with 4.11.6. In the 5000m Isle of Man’s Corrin Leeming set off at a furious pace with Ross Harrison and Ben Fish in pursuit for the Harriers – Ross bided his time, caught him up and then passed him with a couple of laps to go to take the win in 14.50.2 as Ben also caught Sale’s Philip Roberston to win the B in 15.48.8. Isabel Holt was in excellent form, taking on the 800m and 1500m, winning both A races (800 in 2.19.3) – her first race over the distance since 2021 and a new PB by eleven seconds – and also won the 1500m in 4.39.5 – winning by some ten seconds from Southport’s Sienna Fortune. Poppi Watson took on the B 800m winning in 2.24.3 whilst in the B 1500m Rebecca Ward – a distance she has never raced previosuly – won the B race in 5.08.7 – and  – then in the 400m Poppi teamed up with Agatha Taylor – Poppi coming in 4th in the A (63.2) whilst Agatha clocked 59.5 in winning the B – her first race in the individual 400m. Ben Stratton set himself a new PB in tne A 400m clocking 51.4 in 3rd whilst Logan McCredie equaled his personal best with a 52.9 clocking, also in 3rd place in the B.  Evie Taylor and Tanith-Jade Ellis ran the 3000m – Evie placing 3rd in the A (11.18.6) and Tanith-Jade 12.28 in 3rd in the B.

Isabelle Holt (1)

Hayden Mercer (11)

Turning to Jumps where Tamzin Osborne came 3rd in the Pole Vault clearing 3.00m before going on to compete in the Triple Jump with team mate Claudia Longton – Claudia placing 5th in the A (9.66m) and Tamzin coming 2nd in the B with a seasons best jump of 9.23m. Samuel Mutombo and Ethan Cutler were the pairing in the Men’s Triple Jump – Samuel 3rd in the A with 11.28m whilst team mate Ethan won the B with a jump of 10.61m. In the Long Jump Samuel was paired with Logan McCredie earlier in the day – both taking valuable 2nd place points – Samuel jumping 5.79m and Logan setting himself a new PB of 5.58m. Isabella Finn – returning from injury came 5th in the Women’s Long Jump 4.69m and then went on to the High Jump clearing 1.20m in 6th alongside Evie Fort, whom had never done High Jump previously, stepped forward for the team, clearing 1.15m in 4th spot in the B. The Men’s High Jump had Abdollh Shira agonsingly close to breaking his personal best as he cleared 1.70m in 3rd spot in the A whilst Codie Dewhurst won the B with a clearance of 1.55m.

Tamzin Osborne

Abdollh Shriha

The Sprints and Hurdles races had Danniel Nuttall 11.5 in 4th in the A 100m backed up by Keir Michie (11.9) in 4th in the b – the same two athletes lining up for the 200m – Daniel placing 6th in the A (23.8) and Keir 2nd in tne B with 23.8 whilst in the Women’s sprnts Claudia Longton and Isabelle Hartley both placed 6th in respective times of 13.6 and 15.5 – Claudia then teaming up with Grace iLunga in the 200m – Claudia 5th in the A (27.7) and Grace 3rd in the B (29.4). A big thankyou to Isabelle Hartley who took on her first 100m Hurdle race since 2022 and came 2nd with a new PB time of 21.1 and in the 400m Hurdles ever present Millie Pilkington ran 77.2 in 3rd place. The Men’s 400m Hurdles had Codie Dewhurst in 2nd spot in the A in a time of 66.3 whilst George Camara won the B race in a new PB time of 63.8. The relays had the men (Samuel Mutombo, Daniel Nuttall, Codie Dewhurst, Keir Michie) place 4th in the 4 x 100m in 46.70, whilst in the 4 x 400m (Ben Stratton, Hayden Mercer, Ben Makin, Logan McCredie) placed 3rd in 3.31.20. The Women’s 4 x 100m team (Grace iLunga, Evie Fort, Isaelle Hartley, Isabella Finn) came 4th in 54.30 and in the 4 x 400 Tanith-Jade Ellis volunteered to make up the team and without her we would not have had one as they finished 3rd in 4.35.34 (Agatha Taylor, Evie Taylor, Rebecca Ward, Tanith-Jade Ellis) typifying the attitude of the athletes on the day and epitomised by U17 Jack Thompson who came to do a non-scoring 100m (12.6) and was happy to stay the whole day to make sure we had enough athletes to fill the relay teams. All credit to this young lad.

Millie Pilkington

George Camara

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What better way to celebrate your return from holiday than to go and race. This is exactly what Louisa Powell-Smith did at the weekend as she took on the Worsthorne Moor Trail Race on Sunday August 3rd (RESULTS). One hundred and thirty one runners lined up in the race, won Adam Wale (43.07). Louisa won the Women’s Race, was 5th overall and 1st V45, so not  a bad perforamnce on her first day back. There was a set of Junior races for the different age groups too which saw Ryker Hanson come home in 7th spot in the U13 race, running 10.58 with team mate Jenna McKinlay finishing 5th in the U13 Girls race in 13.18 and Pippa Blackburn 8th in a time of 14.24. Liam Bennison had a good run in the U15/U17 Race finishing 3rd overall and 1st U17 running 16.47 with Liam Frith in 19th overall and 6th U15 Boy (20.29).

Louisa Powell-Smith

 

 

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