A mixed day weather wise at this years Lancashire Schools T & F Championships in Wigan with warm sunshine in the morning and torrential rain in the afternoon. The weather didn’t stop some of the Blackburn Harriers who were competing to ensure qualification for this years English Schools.
Continuing their excellent form this season there were victories for Jacob Roberts in the Inter-Boys Hammer with a new PB throw of 66.76m (National Standard) which gave him a new Championship Best Performance. Two other Blackburn Harriers Throwers matched this performance. First of all came Charlotte Williams, who is undefeated all season and No 1 in the National Rankings, achieved the National Standard winning the Inter-Girls Hammer with a throw of 52.34m and again a new Championship Best Performance. At the same time Eloise Littlefair won the Shot Putt, achieving the English Schools qualifying mark, throwing a distance of 10.89m and beating the previous Championship Best Performance by three quarters of a metre.
Joe Monk was the only runner in the Senior Boys 3000m and ran with the Inter-Boys in the same Race, with Joe clocking a County Standard 9.14.6. Ross Liddle took the Senior Boys 400m Hurdles title, again with a County Standard 58.5 whilst Joe Gebbie finished 9th in the Inter-Boys 800m (2.16.9) and the first time he has has ever raced the distance.
With uncertainty about whether the Hurdles would continue in the afternoon because of the torrential rain, a number of athletes left the stadium which meant that Cameron Massey was a lone Inter-Boy in the 100m Hurdles clocking 16.5sec. Tom Doherty hit a new PB in the Inter-Boys Triple Jump winning with a leap of 12.53m and Anthony Kent kept his winning streak going when he won the Inter-Boys Discus with a throw of 35.96m. Junior Boy Leon Thomas placed 9th (2.26.7) in the 14 strong 800m field which was won with an impressive Championship Best Performance of 2.00.8 (James Stanley).
Matthew Ramsden ran in the Junior Boys 1500m finishing 5th out of nine athletes and blasted his previous best time to pieces running 4.39.1 for a fantastic new PB by thirteen seconds. Jamie Teare contested the Junior Boys Triple Jump which we believe is a first time ever at the event and cleared an impressive 9.83m (5th). In the Junior Boys Discus, Alex Bernstein came away with a 2nd place throwing (36.20m). Still terrible conditions for hurdling when Morgan Angland ran the 100mH finishing 3rd in 16.5sec, but just missing the rain helped Olivia Brooks set a new PB by 6cms when she won the Senior Girls High Jump with 1.56m and wasn’t far off her PB in the Long Jump placing 3rd with a leap of 5.02m.
Achieving another place at the English Schools was Senior Girl Rebecca Orrell in the Hammer, winning her event on the last throw with 39.96m from Caitlin Hornby (39.76m) who also threw the ES qualifying standard. Rebecca also took 2nd place in the Shot Putt with 8.21m. Chloe Bleeks set a new PB in the 300m of 46.3 in 4th place whilst in the 800m Inter-Girls Race – Hannah Cookson and Natalya Irvine battled to the line for 3rd and 4th respectively with the same time of 2.30.7.
Maddie Elliott can’t stop setting new PB’s and she was at it again in the Inter-Girls 3000m with a time of 10.30.4, eight seconds faster than her previous best time. Maddie’s run was all the more impressive as she had to run in the Boy’s Race, effectively running a time trial on her own. Libby Angland demonstrated what a natural athlete she is finishing 2nd in the Triple Jump with a leap of 10.06m, her first competition since May 2014 and her first ever competitive Triple Jump. Inter-Girl Teigan Fawcett was absolutley delighted with her day, winning the Discus with a throw of 20.33m and a new PB by nearly a metre and a half. In the Junior Girls Emily Raine took a 2nd place in the 100m Heat with 13.9 and then placed 4th in the Final with 14.1sec. Amy Davies came home in 5th place in the Junior Girls 1500m with a time of 5.15.2 whilst Emily Warren took 2nd place in the Junior Girls 75m Hurdles in a time of 12.4.
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Welsh 99th Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Joe Pearse had a great result at the Welsh Championships, beating the 2015 Champion James Bailey on his way to the Gold Medal with a clearance of 2.04m.
Delighted with his win, Joe told the Club that it “Was a great competition with another positive 2.00m clearance. Very happy with the result and hoping for some good things at the British u23s next weekend, hopefully a pb on the cards. An English man as Welsh champion is also a great feeling”
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Northern U20 & Senior T & F Championships
A massive new PB in the 5000m was the reward for Tim Raynes at this years Northern Championships. Tim came home in 11th place with a time of 15.07.04, a whopping thirty five seconds improvement on his previous best. Speaking to the Club after the Race, Tim commented “I had been targeting this race for a few weeks as a chance to run a fast time. As the race got underway, a group of 6 athletes established a clear lad over the rest of the field and I settled into a second group. We passed through 1k in 3 mins. With the possibility of a sub 15 time on, I decided to take to the front of the group to keep pushing the pace on. Despite a few attempts to move aside and encourage other runners to take the lead, I ended up at the front of the group for much of the race. Unfortunately as the race got to the latter stages, I started to tie up and wasn’t quite able to increase my pace enough to get under 15. Really pleased to come away with a big PB though“.
On Saturday Rebecca Orrell was winning the Lancashire Schools Championships Hammer for the second year in a row. One day later she is at the Northern Championships in the U20’s throwing 41.00m for 7th spot and commented “the competition was very tough today and the weather conditions weren’t helping, but i was happy to throw 41m”. Nathan Billington was also competing in the U20 Hammer and threw solidly (40.92m) for 5th place and spoke to the Club saying “All my throws where consistent with my best being 40:90 just found it difficult being out with injury for so long”.
(Northern Athletics Chairman Tony Wood presenting the Gold Medal to Olympic Gold Medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill for the 100m Hurdles)
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