Tremendous start for the Harriers Senior Team at Hull on Sunday May 3rd at the first fixture of the season. Long day and a long trip but definitely worth it as the Team got off to a great start finishing in 2nd place to hosts Hull and pipped by just a few points.
Full Results HERE
Tony Wood – Mens Team Manager was delighted with the Clubs performance on the day and commented “The success of the Blackburn Harriers team at Hull was a joy to see, not only because of the team spirit of our athletes but also the quality of many of the performances. There was a determination from our athletes, team managers and officials to ensure the Club’s senior team had a good start to our campaign in the top division of the Northern League and this second place with a big points total meant our task was accomplished. We could not have asked more from the athletes who endured a long day at a busy time of the year for many of them in terms of studies and work and when there, they were willing to commit fully to the team effort”.
Women’s Team Manager – Jan Buckingham – was equally pleased and told us after the match that “I just want to say a massive well done for yesterday, 2nd on the day was a great result”.
Chris Barnes who competed in the Steeple Chase said what a “Great turn out for the first fixture today, considering BUCS and Bank holidays, looks like the Northern League team has started where they left off’. Senior Thrower and one of the stalwarts of the Team – Tony Balko – said about the day“Top team, top people, BBH tough to beat”.
Simon Brown ‘A’ and Tony Balko ‘B’ picked up a great win double in the Discus by winning both the the ‘A’ and ‘B’ event with respective throws of 39.52m and 28.07m. Simon took 4th (34.18m) and Tony 2nd in the ‘B’ Javelin (29.39m). In the Hammer Tony placed 4th in the ‘A’ with 28.50m and Simon 3rd in the ‘B’ with 12.34m. In the Women’s Throws Rebecca Orrell was just a metre off her PB in the Hammer and finished 4th with 40.48m. Rachel Wood filled in for the Team with what can only be described as a ‘new style’ and earned the Team good points with her 6.07m Throw. Rebecca went one better in the Discus placing 3rd (26.99m) and Katie Buckingham filled in this time with a 5th spot and a throw of 14.44m. Rebecca Sullivan and Rebecca Orrell took 4th places in the Javelin with 26.17m and 18.66m.
Over at the Hurdles Oliver Aspden literally cruised to victory in 62.1 and Joe Howe who was doing the event for the first time ever took a great 2nd in the ‘B’ with 64.9. In the 110m H it was another double win for the Harriers with Oliver Aspden taking the ‘A’ in 16.4 and Ben Aspinall the ‘B’ in 17.0. Roxanne Oliver placed 3rd in the Womens 400m H (68.6) and Katie Buckingham took maximum points in the ‘B’ with 69.0. Roxanne teamed up with Polly Pearse in the 100mH with Roxanne taking 2nd spot in the ‘A’ (16.8) and Polly winning the ‘B’ in 19.0, all of which made a big contribution to the days total team points.
Another win double by Oliver Aspden and Ben Aspinall in the Long Jump saw Ben hold off Luke Farnworth from Preston to win with a leap of 6.26m which was a good effort given he was carrying a quad injury and had to pull out of the Triple Jump – and Oliver backing him up with a win in the ‘B’ (5.73m) . In the High Jump it was Ben again in the ‘A’ taking a good 3rd position (1.65m) and Oliver 2nd in the ‘B’ with 1.60m. Zac Howe who had a tremendous day stepped in and took a good 4th place with 10.35m. Rebecca Sullivan jumped 4.39m in the Long Jump to take 4th place and Olivia Brooks 4.24m in the ‘B’ for 3rd spot. It was Polly Pearse and Olivia Brooks who teamed up in the Triple Jump which saw Polly jump 9.12m (4th) and Olivia 9.06m (3rd). Polly and Rebecca lined up for the High Jump with both jumping 1.50m – Polly taking 3rd int he ‘A’ and Rebecca 2nd in the ‘B’. In the Pole Vault – Jamie Vickery cleared the opening height of 2.10m which helped the Team add valuable points.
The Team was missing a couple of our sprinters which meant that Jamie Vickery and Paul Coffey took on the 100m & 200m double which saw Jamie take 4th spot in the ‘A’ 100 (11.5) and 4th again in the ‘B’ 200m (24.4). Paul also finished 4th in the ‘B’ 100m (12.0) and 4th in the ‘A’ 200m (24.4). In the Women’s Sprints the places were shared between Olivia Brooks, Rebecca Sullivan, Roxanne Oliver and Phoebe Howe. Olivia ran 13.8 (6th) in the 100m ‘A’ and Rebecca 14.7 (5th) in the ‘B’. In the 200m ‘A’ Roxanne came (5th) in 27.1 and Phoebe 5th in 29.8 in the ‘B’.
Some great performances in the Middle distance races. Morgan Phillips set a new PB in the 400m by one tenth of a second placing 5th in the ‘A’ race in a time of 52.6. He knocked over three seconds off his 800m PB placing 2nd in the ‘B’ race with a new best time of 1.59.7. Great reward for the training he has been doing. Jamie Vickery telling us he would ‘be sick’ running the 400m didn’t let the Team down and took it on finishing 5th in 56.8. Zac Howe – who came all the way from Cambridge just to compete for the Club and went straight back after the fixture – knocked two seconds off his previous best to set a new PB of 4.07.4 to win the ‘A’ 1500m which also saw Ben Fish win the ‘B’ in 4.07.8….a cracking Race with Zac coming up on the line to nick it. Not done yet, Zac then went and added another win for the Team by taking the ‘A’ 800m in a solid time of 1.58..2. Brother Joe Howe ran a new PB in the 3000m Steeplechase which saw him in a real battle with the closing Hull athlete on the last lap and having to put the foot down, showed great determination, as he came off the top bend to win – with Chris Barnes – who had run the Three Peaks the week before winning the ‘B’ Race in 11.11.7. Another good run from Ben Fish in the 5000m ‘A’ after winning the ‘B’ 1500m he took the longer distance victory in 15.30.6. Chris Davies, still with the London Marathon in his legs volunteered for the 5000m ‘B’ race and earned important points finishing second in 17.04.9.
Great to see Rachel Jones run her first race for the Club and doing really well in taking 3rd in the ‘A’ 1500m (5.11.6 ) and 3rd again in the 3000m ‘A’ (11.12.2). Rachel Wood, another athlete running with the London Marathon just behind her took on the ‘B’ double with a win in the 1500m (5.26.3) and 3rd in the 3000m (11.43.6). To add to the pain, Rachel also ran the 800m taking 2nd place in 2.43.7 with Phoebe Howe placing 4th in the ‘A’ in 2.36.7. Some good legs in the Men’s 4 x 100m Relay saw the Team take 2nd place in 45.8 and 4th in the 4 x 400m (3.39.7). The Women’s Relays Teams took 5th in both Relays – 4 x 100m (57.8) and 4 x 400m (4.27.2) and at this stage some of them running on empty after the performances they had put in all day.
♦♦♦♦♦
