Blackburn Harriers David Holman has had a cracking season in the US, establishing for himself, new personal best times in the 800m (1.51.1); 1500m (3.39.80); Mile Indoors (3.59.99) and 3000 Indoors (8.04.38. Last week he was running to qualify for the Nationals 1500m Final which he did by running 3.51.74 in 3rd place in an automatic qualifying place for the Final. One day later in the Final, David clocked 3.51.40, placing 7th which was a very good end to his season in the country, commenting afterwards “7th in the Nation, All American. Good way to end the season in the US – left too much work to do in the last 300, closed in a 54 and managed to get 7th“. David has set his sights on the target of trying to achieve the U23 European Standard back in England.

Joanne Nelson went up to Scotland to run in the Ediburgh Marathon on Sunday May 25th and what a run she had. After putting up with injuries for quite a while, V50 Joanne decided to put everything into her training and take on another Marathon having previously won at Liverpool, Nottingham and Snowdon. Joanne placed 23rd in the Women’s race and 2nd in the V50’s with a time of 3hr 10. 58 – just 23 seconds behind the winner of the age category. Her time also puts her in at number 6 in the National Rankings. A very delighted athlete, Joanne spoke to us about her run saying “Thrilled to bits with my 3:10 at Edinburgh. I’ve trained really hard since the middle of January and picked up some groin issue along the way but was determined to give it my best. The weather conditions weren’t the best; with gale force headwind forecast of over 40 mph for the last 9 miles into the finish. Sign posts held down with sand bags were no longer held down and were blowing away, but it all adds to the fun. The course is really beautiful, heading through the city centre first, past Edinburgh Castle and through Hollyrood Park and then out to the coast. This is a downhill section with a couple of bumps. The rest is pretty much flat (for us Harrier types). The last 9 miles were gruesome! I lost so much time here as I’m definitely not a good runner in the wind and it didn’t matter if you tucked in behind someone as they were struggling too. The crowds were awesome; they really lifted you on the run into the finish. Wind, sun, rain, hail stone.. literally every type of weather condition going. Then we had to get a bus back home to the city centre. Which was actually really good fun. Looking forward to receiving my senior citizens bus pass.” (RESULTS)

Still on the road and last Friday – May 24th – Saw U17 Will Grundy take on his second ever 5k road race – his first resulting in a 16.09 clocking at the Podium in Barrowford. His second outing had him at the Mid Cheshire 5k which wasx won by Jopnny Mellor in 14.07. Will smashed his personal best to set a new PB time of 15.33 – over half a minute faster than his previous race.

Will Grundy (980)

Ξ

Sunday May 25th was the date for the second UKYDL (Upper Age Group) match of the season – it was also one day before the Northern Inter-Counties Match at York which usually manages to take a big swathe of U17 athletes away from the Club teams, and this one was no exception with all Clubs suffering. So it was with a little trepidation that the Harriers turned up at Leigh Sports Village despite having won the first Match by over a 100 points from West Cheshire in 2nd place. The day was sunny but very windy, which had its impact on most of the events. Great spirit by all of our athletes as they responded really well in covering all of the events and making sure that we took another win, to cement our place at the top of the Division with a very good chance of winning promotion to the Premier Division – the team winning with 566 points from West Cheshire (502), Leigh Harriers (444), Sale Harriers (323), Lancaster & Morecambe (299), Border & Seaton (217), Team North Cumbria (137).

All Photos on Blackburn Harriers Facebook Page – (HERE)

Undoubted performance of the day came from U20 sprinter Charlie Unsworth who won the 100m in a Club U20 Record (his own) in a new PB time of 10.7 into a headwind of minus 1.8. Daniel Nuttall backed that up by winning the B in 11.5. The pair of them teamed up in the 200m – Charlie winning the A (22.1) and Daniel 2nd in the B (24.3) into some horrible headwind again – measured at -4.1 in some races. Alisha Lehner ran 13.9 in 3rd and Grace iLunga 2nd in the B (14.1) whilst Millee Schofield clocked 25.3 in 2nd in the 200m A race alongside Sienna Wareing running 27.5 in 2nd in the B. Kier Michie won the U17 Men’s 100m in a new PB time of 11.6 alongside Jack Thomspon taking 3rd in the B (12.9) followed by Keir teaming up with Matthew Sharples in the 200m – Keir placing 2nd in the A (24.3) and Matthew winning the B (24.6). Claudia Longton and Holly Moore ran the U17 Women’s 100m – Claudia 4th in the A (13.5) equaling her personal best and Holly 4th in the B (13.9) as Claudia clocked 28.3 in 3rd in the 200m A race alongside Grace iLunga running 29.4 in the B (3rd).

Charlie Unsworth

Over 400m Aidan Downes (57.1) was 4th in the U20 A with Codie Dewhurst winning the B (56.7). Millie Pilkington was 3rd in her U20 race (73.0) alongside team mate Freya Nield running 75.1 (2nd) in the B, both girls just filling in to make sure the team gained points. Matthew Sharples won the U17 men’s 400m (53.9) with Grace iLunga clocking 47.2 in 4th in her U17 300m race and Lydia Knowles placing 4th in the B (55.4) – a race won by Keely Hodgkinson’s sister – Jessica (42.8). In the 800m there were U20 wins for Logan McCredie in a well judged 2.08.2, 3rd place for Isabella Pacelli in the U20 Women’s 800m (2.29.4) – just 4 tenths spliting the three athletes in this race, Loucas Lancashire 4th in the U17 800m (2.20.8 with team mate George Holman 2nd in the B (2.20.2). U17’s Agatha Taylor in a well thought out race and Lyra Krige took a double win in the U17 Women’s 800m in times of 2.22.1 and 2.26.5 respectively – a new PB for Lyra. The 1500m races really suffered with no entries for any of the U20 or U17 male and female races, demonstrating the impact of the Inter-Counties clash – similarly with the 3000m – just three in the U20 Men’s Adam Nott placing 3rd in 9.46.8; Freya Neild the sole U20 (11.50.7) and four in the U17 Men’s race – Elliot Unsworth running 10.59.3 in 4th place and his first time ever over the distance.

Logan McCredie (1)

In the Hurdles, there were wins for Codie Dewhurst (67.7), for Millie Pilkington (78.9) and Alisha Lehner in the 100m Hurdles (18.3), 3rd spot for Isabella Finn in the 80m Hurdles (15.4) and Ellie Charnock winning the B in 15.3 and both girls doing this event distance for the first time. In the Junps events Daniel Nuttall was 2nd in the U20 Long Jump A (5.47m) alongside Logan McCredie taking 2nd also in the B (5.17m), Codie Dewhurst winning the High Jump (1.60m) – there were U20 wins for Millee Schofield (4.81m) and a Long Jump new PB, 2nd place for Imogen Robinson in High Jump (1.35m), a win for Sienna Wareing in the Triple Jump (10.40m), a win for Keir Michie in Long Jump (5.53m) – a new PB by 1.36m, a win for Lincoln Briggs in the High Jump (1.60m) and his first time at the event, a win for George Camara in the Triple Jump (11.46m), 4th place for Isabella Finn in the Long Jump (4.46m), a win for Holly Moore in the Long Jump (3.93m) along with a 3rd place in the High Jump (1.30m) and 4th spot for Claudia Longton in the Triple Jump (9.08m),

Millee Schofield

Ellie Charnock

The Throws results for the team included Loucas Lancashire in the Discus (4th) with 20.06m and 3rd in the Javelin (29.92m); 4th for Kady Thompson in Shot Putt (5.55m) – 3rd in the Discus (14.53m) and 2nd in the Javelin (23.44m), Lincoln Briggs 2nd in the Shot Putt (11.05m) and a new PB in the Discus (35.95m), James McAulay 2nd in the Discus B (16.10m), Bella McCredie in the Discus with a new PB of 12.11m and 3rd in the Javelin (10.62m).

Kady Thompson

The relays produced very good results for the Harriers – Charlie Unsworth, Daniel Nuttall, Codie Dewhurst Aidan Downes were 2nd in the U20 Men’s 4 x 100m (46.4); won the U20 Mixed 4 x 400m in 3.54.3 with Codie Dewhurst, Agatha Taylor, Isabelle Perry, Logan McCredie; won the U20 Women’s 4 x 100m in 51.6 with Alisha Lehner, Isabella Finn, Sienna Wareing, Millee Schofield; won the U17 Men’s 4 x 100m (47.3) with Keir Michie, Jack Duxbury, Jack Thompson, James McAulay; 2nd in the U17 Men’s 4 x 400m with Matthew Sharples; James McAulay; George Camara, Loucas Lancashire and 2nd in the U17 Women’s 4 x 100m (54.1) with Holly Moore, Claudia Longton; Annabelle Partridge, Agata Tomasz.

Agatha Taylor

Ξ

At Blackburn Harriers, we try to cover all the activities of its members when it comes to athletics, no matter where they are or what standard they are competing at, so apologies to some Blackburn Harriers whose results have been missed off the reports on our website and social media pages recently. First off is the outing of V40 Anna Weaver who was competing in the Outlaw Half in Nottingham on May 18th where she placed 10th in the Women’s race out of 1317 finishers – and 2nd V40 overall with a combined finishing time of 4hr 50.23 covering a 1.2 mile Swim, 56 mile Bike ride and a Half-Marathon run and posting a time of 1hr.35 10 for her Half-Marathon. (RESULTS)

Ella Green had run the Chorley 10k on May 4th finishing as 2nd V35 in a time of 47.02 and was then out again – a week later – in the Beaverbook 10k at Blackpool, finishing 9th overall in the Women’s race with a new PB time of 46.12. (RESULTS)

Ella Green

Lastly is another V40 – Helen Leigh – running on her less than favourite off road terrain up in Scoland where she set a course record at the Beinn Bhan Horseshoe race on May 18th in winning the Women’s race, which is becoming a regular occurence for her. Afterwards, Helen shared her thoughts about the race with the Club, commenting “Steep walking ascents are not my favourite so I was pleased with my climb in brutal heat, a lovely run around the tops before a rough descent. Really chuffed with a course record by about 2 mins, a rude awakening for my legs that have been on the flat all winter!

Helen Leigh (251) – Photo Courtesy of Lochaber AC

Finally and missing from the results were those from the Southport Sprint Duathlon where V50 Anton Krige won his age category and was 6th over all with a combined time of 1hr 18.54 posting 22.04 for the 1st run, 34.17 for the bike ride and 20.31 for the final run. Speaking to the Club afterwards, Anton told us that the “first run was actually 5.2km getting to the start of the transition area – which itself was a 250m run each time getting to bike & out. The 2nd run was bang on 5k to the finish line so I was pleased that I averaged 3:59/km on 1st run & only a drop off to 4:06/km pace on 2nd run so fit & didn’t over bike – common to have a 20 – 30sec/km drop off to 2nd run.” (RESULTS)