It was the last fixture in the Sportscity Indoor Series on Sunday and a number of Harriers competed – with the added spice of the unofficial Blackburn Harriers 60m Sprint Championship at stake!!
Sportscity Full Results HERE
Unfortunately not all the Harriers Sprinters were there for ‘the Champs’ and in the end it featured Jamie Vickery, Dominic Bretherton, Oliver Aspden and Paul Coffey with Jamie taking the ‘unofficial trophy’ and probably more importantly, the bragging rights. Jamie duly ‘took the title’ finishing 3rd in 7.35 in a seasons best with Dominic 4th (7.46) and a PB, Oliver 5th (7.48) and also a PB and Paul 6th in 7.64.
In the lower age group 60m Races bottom of age U17 Cameron Massey finished 6th in 8.02 whilst brother U15 Nicholas Massey placed 4th in his Race with 7.98. U15 Joshua van der Linde won his U15 60m with a new PB of 8.22. Then in the 60m Hurdles Cameron just missed out on a PB by seven hundreds of a second when he finished 2nd in 10.24 with Nicholas suffering the same fate in his 60m Hurdles with a time of 9.18 – eight hundreths of a second from a new PB. Roxanne Oliver delivered a new PB in her 60m Hurdle Race with a 4th place 10.10. Oliver Aspden had the misfortune of being the only athlete in his 60m Hurdles but ran a new PB time of 8.77.
Jamie went on to compete in the 300m and set a new PB of 37.15 when he finished 3rd and said “Obviously really pleased to have taken a chunk off of my pb… But unbelievably frustrated that I made such a ridiculous mistake that cost me at least half a second. Definitely looking good for the transition to the outdoor though!”.
U17 Huzaifa Hanif ran an even paced 600m (1.27.95) which earned him a new PB by one second and a 3rd place in the Race of seven athletes and said afterwards that “I ran the race sensibly and I got 1:27.95 so very happy! “.
Cameron and Nicholas set seasons best in the U15/U17 High Jump with 1.40m for Cameron (9th) and 1.45m for Nicholas (7th). Josh set himself a new High Jump PB with his clearance of 1.35 (12th) and followed it up with another PB in the Long Jump (4.61m) taking 6th spot in the competition of 22 athletes.
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From the Indoors at Sportscity to the Outdoors at Stanley Park in Blackpool with athletes starting to get the feel of the forthcoming T & F Season and some of them going up an age group and consequently increasing weights thrown for some of them and distances for others. And what a good start for these young athletes on the day.
Full Results HERE
In the U13’s Luis Billington had a very good day setting new PB’s in the 80m (3rd in 11.8sec) and Long Jump (5th with 3.90m) and added a 4th place 16.7 sec in the 75m Hurdles. Emily Raine flew out the blocks to knock nearly half a second of her 80m time when she won the Race in 11.2sec for a new PB.
There were some impressive performances in the U15 age group too. Hannah Cookson won her 800m in 2.31.8, took 2nd in the 100m with 13.9 and set a new PB in the Long Jump with 4.25m.
Emily Warren also had three very good events setting new PB’s in the 200m which she won in 27.9, then went and won the 75m Hurdles in 12.7 in her first race over the slightly longer distance and rounded it off with a solid 3rd place 800m in 2.38.5. Afterwards she told the Club that “I Was very pleased with my hurdles and 200m results yesterday. I managed to get two pbs in the winter warm up and although my 800 was not as good as I hoped, I’m still making progress. Although I’m at the bottom of the age category I am more confident for the future competitions”.
Another athlete moving up an age group – Eloise Littlefair – took on all the Throws events with the new weights and did really well with a win and two seconds. She won the Discus with a throw of 19.29m, came 2nd in the Shot Putt (3k) with 8.18m and 2nd again in the Hammer (3kg) with a throw of 22.41m.
In the U17’s Jacob Roberts and Rebecca Orrell had a very good day setting three new PB’s between them in the Throws events. Jacob took on the Shot Putt (5k) for the first time finishing 4th with a distance of 7.89m and in the Discus came 2nd with 21.76m. In the Hammer (5k) he excelled adding 5 metres to his previous best with a throw of 48.65m which got him a 2nd place finish and a new PB as well as putting himself 2nd in the National Rankings and said “Fantastic day at blackpool meeting today got new PB at 48.65 with my new weight of 5kg looking forward to the season ahead “. Jacob’s dad Neil who works with Mick Hitchon and the Throws Group was also delighted about the day and commented “Fantastic day at Blackpool athletic comp . Well done to my son Jacob Roberts on first competition of the season and a new weight of 5kg with a throw of 48.55mts . Also my first competition has a field official really enjoyed it”.
Rebecca took on the Shot Putt (4k) and the Hammer (4k) and like Jacob, didn’t disappoint winning both competitions. In the Shot Putt she won with a Throw of 8.27m and then set a new PB in the Hammer (4k) when winning the event with a distance of 40.55m. This has Rebecca currently first in the National Rankings. Understandably pleased Rebecca said that “It was really good to start competing again after a tough winter training of not being able to throw. So with this in mind I wasn’t expecting to get anywhere near my PB. But my throws were consistent and my furthest throw was 40.55 metres, a new PB! So my first competition of the year started of with a win and a new PB. Bring on the rest of the season!”
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