Over the weekend of July 25 – 27th the England Athletics Senior & U20 Championships (inc Para) & Senior & U20 Combined Events Championship were hosted at Alexandra Stadium and included a number of Blackburn Harriers who had qualified for the National Championships. First year U23 Abigail McAndrew had a great Championships racing the 1500m consisting of three senior and four U23 women. Abigail came home in 2nd place (4.19.52) behind senior athlete Lucy Jones who won in 4.19.20 – which meant – that she took the Gold Medal as first U23 and Silver Medal overall in the Seniors. Following the medal ceremony Abigail spoke to the Club commenting “So pleased with my run today, happy with how I ran it, so happy to come away with U23 England gold and senior sliver! Can’t wait for British senior champs next week“. Ben Stratton who had recently set a new personal best over 1500m (3.54.67) had qualified for the 800m where there was no lack of competition for sure. Ben – second year U20 – went in Heat 3 won in 1.51.13 (Rafferty Mirfin) and clocked 1.53.83 in 6th spot – the third time he has run 1.53 this season. 3rd year U20 Isabel Holt is another athlete who is having a good season, setting new personal best times for 1500 (4.29.90), 3000m (9.29.04) and 5000m (16.35.74). In the Championship 3000m, the heat became a factor as she came home in 8th place overall and 4th U20 with a time of 17.03.86.
L-R Zoe Hunter – Abigail McAndrew – Keira Brady-Jones
U23 Ava Leigh has been having a good season so far in the Hammer, setting a new personal best of 54.13m in the Northern League West Premier Division match in May. Ava was involved in a pool including senior and U23 women – the event being won overall by Charlotte Payne (66.78m). Ava threw 52.27 to take third spot in the U23 age category and along with it, the Bronze Medal. Speaking to the Club after the event, Ava told us that she was “Really happy with my performance in Birmingham and to come away with the bronze. Looking forward to the rest of the season and trying to push past 55m“.
Ava Leigh
Three athletes were involved in the Sprints – Charlie Unsworth, Charlie Palich and Millee Schofield. Having run a new personal best of 10.70 this season already in the 100m, Charlie lined up in his Heat confidently and set another new PB of 10.68 in qualifying for the semi-final. His semi-final was won in 10.47 with the first three all under 10.60 – Charlie clocking 10.83 in 8th spot. Charlie Palich – first year U20 – had also set new a personal best this year for the 100m of 10.8 but in his 100m Heat 4 in Birmingham he ran 11.27 which meant that he didn’t qualify for the semi-final. First year U20 Millee has set new new personal bests at 100m (12.4) and 200m (24.8) during the season. At the Championships she was taking on the 200m and drawn in Heat 1 on Sunday morning where she clocked 25.34 in 4th place which meant she had qualified for the semi-final where she ran quicker still, clocking 25.24 in 7th spot.
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Back up North as they say, it was the fourth fixture in this years Mid Lancs track & field league held, as it was for Match 3 at Bury athletic track. The potential for rain soon disappeared and the day was dry and bright. There had been some changes to the timetable – the Hurdles for U13 and U15’s taking place at 11.15am and the throws competitions reduced to one warm up throw plus the regulation three throws – and that is where we start this report, in the Hammer. (Provisional Results). Anthony Kent won the Senior Men’s Hammer with a throw of 51. 94m – less than a metre short of his personal best. Then Ava Leigh – just one day after competing at the National Championships in Birmingham – won the Senior Women’s Hammer with a new PB of 54.16m followed by Madeline Partridge winning the U15 Girls Hammer with a big new PB of 39.78m – over four and half metres further than she has thrown before, and this, in her very first season, which has also seen her move into the top ten in the national rankings. Still on Throws and what a good day for the Clubs Shot Putters as they took 1st, 2nd and 3rd spots in the U15 Girls event – Dana Juma winning with 9.27m, Madeline Partridge throwing 8.80m in 2nd and Abigail Awe in her first competition for the Club 3rd with 8.16m. Madeline then went on to add another 2nd place to her total for the day – throwing 23.17m in 2nd spot in the Discus. Back to the Senior Men’s throws and it was another win for Anthony Kent as he took 1st spot in the Shot Putt with 10.82m and then made it a hat-trick of wins in the Discus with 37.15m. U17 Loucas Lancashire was in the Javelin and placed 3rd with a throw of 37.85m, all of the U17 men throwing with the new specification javelins. Zakariya Haq added more wins as he took first place in the U15 Boys Javelin with 27.67m and U17 Rebecca Awe in just her third competition for the Club added two more wins as she won the U17 Women’s Shot Putt with a new PB throw of 10.59m and then added a second win and new PB in the Discus, throwing 28.81m. Eight wins and four new personal best was a great return for the Throws squad on the day.
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L-R Madeline Partridge – Abigail Awe – Dana Juma
Anthony Kent
Loucas Lancashire
Dan Juma
Logan McCredie ran in the Senior Men’s 400m clocking 53.6 and just outside his personal best as he finished 2nd overall out of the four heats and that was alongside long andf triple jump athlete – Samuel Mutombo – who took on his frst 400m in two years – clocking 57.7 in 5th spot overall. Matthew Sharples clocked 53.2 in the U17 Men’s 400m (2nd) and in the U15 Boys 400m Joshua Carrier ran 65.7 (4th) in his first race over the distance. U15 Max Unthank ran in his favoured 1500m distance clocking 5.01.1 (4th). V50 Stephen Hall was making his debut on the track, having never run a race on the track previously. In the 3000m he had a fine debut running 9.47.1 in 4th place which takes him into 15th place in the V50 National rankings. V40 Rebecca Ward was just one tenth short of her personal best as she won the Senior Women’s 800m in 2.29.4 which keeps her at 12th place in the V40 National Rankings. Two U17 Women ran the 800m – Bella McCredie in 4th place (2.35.2) and Isabelle Perry in 5th (2.43.3) – her first race over the distance since 2024. Imogen Boardman was a comfortable winner of the U15 Girls 300m clocking 44.3 and in the U13 Girls 800m – Sophie Douglas ran 2.55.3 in 10th, Florence Molyneaux ran 2.55.9 in 11th and Pippa Blackburn 3.05.8 in 14th. U17 Max Winstanley was making his debut for the Club in the 800m, clocking 2.05.7 in 6th spot with team mates Theo Robinson in 8th spot (2.12.6) which was a massive new PB and George Holman 2.16.3 in 9th – followed in the U17 Men’s 1500m – by Liam Bennison clocking 4.53.7 in 4th.
L-R George Holman – Theo Robinson – Max Winstanley
In the sprints James McCauley ran 13.7 (4th) in Heat 2 of the U17 Men’s 100m and 28.3 in 6th in Heat 1 of the 200m. U15 Boys – Joshua Carrier ran 14.0 and Ollie Haworth 14.0 in 7th and 8th places overall in the 100m – and in the U13 Boys – Xuanqiao Llang clocked 13.9 with team mate Noah Briscoe running a new PB of 14.1 in 4th and 5th places overall – following that up later in the afternoon by both boys winning their 200m Heats – Xuanqiao winning Heat 1 in 28.2 and Noah winning Heat 3 in another new PB of 29.5 – Xuanqiao winning overall in the three Heats and Noah placing 5th. U17 Evie Fort ran 14.2 in 3rd spot (Heat 2) of the 100m and in the U15 Girls 100m Dana Juma ran 14.3 to place 13th out of 21 girls in the four Heats followed by Abigail Awe clocking a new PB in the U15 Girls 200m with 29.1 3rd in Heat 1. Amelia Carrier and Sophie Douglas placed 15th and 17th overall in the U13 Girls 100m with respective times of a new PB of 15.6 and 16.0 for Sophie in her first run over the distance – earlier in the day Sophie Douglas ran 15.3 in the U13 Girls 70m Hurdles.
Xuanqiao Llang (78)
Turning to Jumps events on the day – U15 James Acton-Grieves was allowed to compete in the U17 Men’s Triple Jump as there were no other U15 Boys who had entered the event and unsurprisingly did really well by leaping out to 10.31m on his debut. He had earlier clocked 13.6 in the 80m Hurdles and followed that with a jump of 4.84m in the Long Jump for 2nd spot. In his 2nd year with the Club James has set personal bests of 13.2 (100m), 43.5 (300m), 58.4 (400m), 13.3 (80m Hurdles), 1.55m (High Jump), 2.30m (Pole Vault) and Long Jump (5.02m) which is a very impressive list of perforamcnes for this young athlete. Noah Briscoe came 3rd in the U13 Boys Long Jump with 4.20m which equaled his personal best as Evie Fort jumped 3.75m in the U17 W Long Jump (5th).
Noah Briscoe
James Acton-Grieves
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Out on the Road on Friday July 25th was the running of the Power of 5k won by Rob Danson in 15.12. V40 Ben Fish and U20 Matthew Smith ran in this race for ther Harriers – Ben placing 14th overall and 1st V40 with 15.58 and Matthew 29th running 17.00.
Ben Fish (37) – Matthew Smith (65)
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