A hot night at Sportcity at the latest BMC meeting on Saturday May 27th. Some cracking runs from Blackburn Harriers athletes entered including Abigail Stratton, Daniel Bebbington, David Holman, Dexta THompson, Calum Davidson, Rob Warner and Tim Raynes. (RESULTS)
Abigail had a brilliant run in the Women’s 1500m B race chopping a huge 5 seconds off her previous personal best set at Trafford ten days before. With a great finish in the home straight, Abigail finished with the win in front of Wigan’s Ava Lloyd (4.21.05) and Enfield’s Hollie Parker (4.21.44), set hereself a new PB time of 4.20.32 and was two seconds inside the Junior European qualifying time.
Abigail Stratton (5th at this stage)
The Emsley Carr Mile has a very long and rich history, a race which has embraced some of the best middle distance athletes of all time. Daniel Bebbington up until this season had a personal best time of 4.12.43 for the distance – all this has changed in 2023. Taking on the Mile at the Loughborough International Daniel clocked a new personal best by close to 5 seconds with a time of 4.07.79 – six days before the Race at Sportcity. Breaking that time by six seconds and running a superb new PB time of 4.01.56, Daniel placed 7th in the race and moves closer to that magic sub 4 minute mile.
U20 David Holman clocked a seasons best time of 3.56.52 in the Mens 1500m E race as he has got faster with each of this three races this season. U20 Dexta Thompson ran in the 800m H race finishing a close 2nd in the race to Richmond & Zetland’s Joseph Reeve (1.55.25) – just two tenths outside his personal best. Three senior athletes ran in the 5000m – The A Race won by Emile Cairess in 13.37.39 saw Rob Warner-Judd take on his first track race of the season and his first over this distance since July 2022 and on the night, clocking 14.48.40 in 20th position. Callum Davidson was next up in the B 5000m – his second track race of the season – finishing in 13th with a time of 14.37.54. Tim Raynes also was in his second track race of the season, battling as he has to come back from quite a time out due to injury and placing 6th with a time of 14.55.01.
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Blackburn Harriers U20 George Whittaker had a really good weekend at the England Senior & U20 Combined Event Championships at Sportcity. Going into the Decathlon, having competed just once before in 2021 amassing a total of 4957 points in his first year as an U20. This time he smashed that points total with a new PB score of 5688 points – over 700 points up on his previous competition. To do that he had to set himself a number of personal bests, which he did – setting new PB’s in four of the ten events – 100m clocking 11.38; 400m (52.45); Pole Vault clearing 3.70m and the 1500m running 5.11.32. In the Javelin he threw 35.72m; threw 38.16m in the Discus; clocked 17.33 in the 110m Hurdles; cleared 1.61m in the High Jump; threw 11.09m in the Shot Putt and leapt out to 5.86m in the Long Jump. A great performance all round. (RESULTS) After the competition was finished George spoke to the Club about the Championships and was in a very positive frame of mind as he told us “ i‘m super chuffed with this weekend, a few PBs and SBs relatively early in the season I can’t complain. My second decathlon I learnt a lot, I have so much more to improve, a lot more points I can gain and new targets to set. Excited for the future“.
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The second Match in this years UKYDL (Upper age Group) Premier Divsion took place on Sunday May 28th at the Oval, Bebington on the Wirral in glorious weather. As the Match clashed with the Inter-Counties held at York on Saturday May 27th, BMC at Sportcity on Saturday and U20 Combined Event Championships, there was always going to be an impact on the numbers involved and so it turned out – some of the athletes competing in the Inter-Counties and then turning round to compete in the UKYDL the following day. As always, the Harriers athletes gave everything on the day to help the team – and – a big thankyou again to our Officials who supported the Club in maintaining its responibilities to the League – Sabrina Dewhurst, Lindsay Davies, Lee Thompson, Helen Dawson-Smith, Christine Smith, Sharon Mercer & Richard Robinson. Provisional results show the Club as finishing in 5th place but that had still to be confirmed as this report is being written. Overall the athletes posted 18 new personal bests on the day.
Selected photos in this report – all photos on Blackburn Harriers Facebook Page
Sam Mutombo equaled his personal best in the 100m A (11.9) whilst team mate James Tierney blew his personal best away by 4 tenths as he clocked a new PB of 11.8 in the B race (4th). Isabelle Hartley and Connie Humes, both U17’s clocked 14.6 and 14.9 respectively in the U20 100m race which was a new PB for Connie by over half a second. Poppy Mae Preece and Imogen Robinson both placed 5th in the 200m with respective times of 29.7 and 30.0 whilst Sam Mutombo clocked 24.1 – a new PB by 4 tenths in 4th place in the A 200m. Daniel Nuttall – one of those athletes who had competed at Inter-Counties the day before – won the A U17 Men’s 100m in 11.4 with team mate and hurdler Harvey Holden clocking 12.5 in the B (6th) having not run a 100m race since 2019. Daniel took 3rd in the A 200m (23.9) alongside team mate James Tierney 25.1 (6th) in the B race. Millee Schofield added to the new personal bests as she clocked a new PB off 12.4 in placing 2nd in the A 100m alongside Alisha Lehner who took 3rd in the B with 13.6 – after which both ran the 200m – Millee winning in a time 25.3 and a new PB by three tenths with Alisha clocking 27.7 in 2nd spot in the B race – another new PB by half a second.
Samuel Mutombo (1)
Daniel Nuttall (A)
Millee Schofield (A)
Alisha Lehner (AA)
No 400m runners for the U20 and U17 Men as Keira Haxton and Zoe Green paired up for the U20 400m which had Keira running 65.0 (6th) and Zoe 72.4 (3rd). Well done to Zoe on the day as she took a fall in the Hurdles but got up and carried on making a valuable contribution to the team. Isabella Pacelli and Connie Humes took on the U17 300m – both running new PB’s with Isabella placing 4th in the A (46.5) and Connie 4th in the B (49.4). Isabella then ran another new PB of 2.28.8 in the U17 800m (2nd) with Freya Neild volunteering to do the B to help the team placing 3rd in the B with 2.46.9 and rewarded with a new PB by a couple of seconds. Codie Dewhurst was a happy man going home on the team coach as he clocked a new PB time of 1.59.9 (2nd) in the A U20 800 and his first time under 2 minutes alongside Daniel Smith who won the B, also in a new PB time of 2.01.3 – over six seconds better than his previous best time. Keira Haxton and Hollie Cubbon posted respective times of 2.25.5 (3rd) and 2.36.9 (3rd) in the U20 800m whilst in the U17 Men’s 800m George Ramsden ran 2.14.3 (6th) in the A with Ethan Cutler chopping another 4 seconds off his previous best to set himself a new PB of 2.13.2 in 3rd spot.
L-R Isabella Pacelli – Zoe Green – Imogen Robinson – Freya Neild
Isabella Pacelli (A)
Freya Neild (A)
Keira Haxton (1)
Codie Dewhurst (1)
Sam Mutombo came 2nd in the U20 Long Jump (5.58m) and 2nd again in the Triple Jump with 12.07m – Codie Dewhurst taking 5th spot in the High Jump with 1.55m. Hayden Mercer cleared 2.60m in the Pole Vault taking the win as the only athlete in the event. In the Women’s Jumps Poppy Preece jumped 4.27m in the U20 Long Jump and cleared 1.45m in the High Jump. after placing 2nd in the U20 Pole Vault with a height of 2.50m. Daniel Nuttall won the U17 Men’s Long Jump with 5.44m as Imogen Robinson came 5th in the U17 Long Jump (3.59m) and 3rd in the High Jump clearing 1.45m. Because of missing athletes our Relay Squads suffered with one getting disqualified on the day.
Samuel Mutombo
Daniel Nuttall
Poppy Preece
Imogen Robinson
With a number of athletes missing, the team was light in the 1500m races – Dexta Thompson and Hayden Mercer ran the U20 1500m with Dexta posting 4.12.8 (2nd) in the A and Hayden clocking a new PB of 4.18.3 in winning the B Race. Well done to Freya Neild who ran the U17 1500m in a new PB by three seconds in a time of 5.56.6 (3rd). Only one athlete in the 3000m and that was in the U17 Men’s race which saw Logan McCredie run a big new PB of 9.47.6 in 3rd place – an improvement of 37 seconds.
Dexta Thompson (11) – Hayden Mercer (1)
Freya Neild (AA)
Logan McCredie (A)
George Williams set a new PB in the U20 Hammer placing 3rd with 36.24m as Dexta Thompson and Hayden Mercer volunteered in the U20 Discus placing 3rd (16.18m) and 2nd (15.65m) respectively with Codie Dewhurst volunteering for the Shot Putt – 4th with 5.68m. Dexta Thompson volunteered again for Javelin placing 4th (23.31m). Grace Bontoft added valuable points as she won the U20 Hammer with 37.39m, then placed 3rd in the Shot with 8.00m and 5th in the Discus (15.41m) with Hollie Cubbon placing 3rd in the U20 Javelin (11.11m). Daniel Smith and James Tierney helped out on U17 Shot and Discus – Daniel in 4th with 7.45m in the Shot Putt and James in 3rd with the Discus (18.36m). Daniel & George Ramsden volunteered for U17 Javelin with throws of 17.04m (5th) and 9.17m (5th) respectively.
George Williams
Grace Bontoft
Kady Thompson
Kiera Booth was one of two runners in the 400m Hurdlers which saw the Trafford athlete fall early on and not able to finish as Kiera came home in 79.0. Harvey Holden ran the U17 100m Hurdles even though he was carrying a niggle and placed 2nd in 16.9. Alisha Lehner and Isabelle Hartley took on the U17 80m Hurdles with Alisha 4th setting a new PB in the A (12.7) and Isabelle 4th in the B (16.2). With missing athletes the Relay Squads were impacted – the U20 Men’s 4 x 100m came 2nd in 47.3 – the U20 Women’s 4 x 100 team came 5th (60.0) and the 4 x 400 team 5th (4.34.4). Our U17 Men’s 4 x 400 came 3rd (3.49.8) alongside our U17 4 x 300 team placing 4th (3.23.5).
Kiera Booth
Harvey Holden
Zoe Green (A)
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More new personal bests were recorded by Blackburn Harriers young athletes at the Trafford Bank Holiday Medal meeting on May 29th. (RESULTS). U13 Dana Juma set herself a new PB in the 75m with a 4th placed time of 10.70 and then went on to set a big new PB in the Long Jump leaping out to 3.90m in 3rd place and then made it a hat-trick of new PB’s with a win in the Shot Putt (2.72kg) throwing a distance of 7.85m which placed her in the top 20 in the National Rankings.
Bottom of age U15 Evie Fort knocked a second and a half off her 200m time when she ran a new PB of 28.97 in 2nd place in the 200m and then made it a double new PB with a 4th place in the 800m clocking 2.47.50 – an improvement of over 2 seconds. Jack Baranowski who broke the British 12000m record recently for U13’s went in the U15 Boys 800m race and ran himself another new PB coming home in 2nd place with 2.7.00 which was a five second improvement on his last 800 in 2022. With this run Jack has gone to Number 1 in the U13 National Rankings. U15 Sam Aspey kept the new PB’s coming as he also set one in the 1500m clocking 4.25.64 in 3rd spot.
Evie Fort (3rd from Left)
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Out on the Fells last week at the Hebden Bridge Fell Race covering a distance of 10k and 350m of ascent were Blackburn Harriers duo Josh Holgate and Marc Hartley. Josh had another very good run on the Fells as he took the win in a time of 44.27 from Calder Valley’s Stephen Hall (45.36) and Holmfirth’s Richard Anderson in 3rd (46.56). Marc also had a good run taking a top ten place with a time of 50.36 in 8th spot.
Still on the Fells and this time with U15’s Theo Robinson and Lottie Hesketh in the Thornton In Craven (Short) race run over 5k. Theo came 2nd overall in a mixed age group race, covering male & female runners with a time of 20.30 behind the winner Will Pease (Barlick) who ran 20.11. Lottie was the first Junior Girl in a time 24.01 and 6th overall in the race.
Theo Robinson (21) Photo courtesy of www.woodentop.org.uk
Lottie Hesketh (13) Photo courtesy of www.woodentop.org.uk
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Bank Holiday Monday is when the Bowley Hill Race takes place which saw Blackburn Harriers Stephen Hall take the win in bright sunshine with a time of 41.06 from Jonathan Holt in 2nd (44.21) and James Barshy in 3rd (44.42). (RESULTS)
Stephen Hall (23)
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Stephen Hall and Nick Gaskell were out at the Summer Wesham 10k on Wednesday May 24th with just over 250 runners won by Wesham’s Adam Wilding in 34.03. Stephen took 2nd place in a time of 34.53 which also gave him the 1st V45 prize and team mate Nick placed 4th in 34.59 and 1st V50. Eleanor Bolton won the Women’s Race in a time of 35.04. (RESULTS)
The previous Sunday Nick had competed in the Skipton Triathlon – (RESULTS) – and bagged himself a top ten place with a combined time of 65.07, posting 8.41 for the Swim, 40.00 for the Bike ride and 15.35 for the Run which was the third fastest overall. Nick also placed 3rd overall in the Vet 50 – 59 age category.
Stephen Hall
Nick Gaskell (92)
Still on the Roads and nearly one thousand runners lined up for the Epilepsy Action Bradford 10k at the weekend won by Bingley’s Joe Wilkinson in 31.22 from Spenborough’s Tom Dart in 2nd (33.05) and Bingley’s Matt Nedham in 3rd (33.48). Blackburn Harriers Paul Bradshaw and Lee Casson bumped into one another at the start and stayed pretty much together thoughout the race as Paul crossed the line in 9th spot running 35.08 with Lee in 10th place in a time of 35.16. (RESULTS)
