This years English Schools Championships were held in Gateshead and had eight young Blackburn Harriers athletes qualifying. Nick Massey and Morgan Angland in the Sprint Hurdles with Katie Buckingham in the Long Hurdles, Archie Braysford in the 100m, Ben Aspinall in the Triple Jump, Rebecca Orrell, Jacob Roberts and Charlotte Williams all in the Hammer.

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(Lancashire Team)

 Full Results HERE

The Hammer throwers did particularly well, all of them finishing with new PB’s. Jacob threw 54.08m (9th) in the straight final featuring 17 Throwers, a throw which puts him in 14th place in the U17 National Rankings. Jacob was delighted with his competition and said “Having being selected for English Schools to represent Team Lancashire, i was well happy. I was bottom age of the hammer group U17 Boys, but i managed to get a new PB at 54.08 and overall i came 9 out of 18, just missing out on the top 8. But i was happy with my throws and my new PB . The two day event is a fantastic time to make new friends and enjoy myself with other athletes . I will now be training for Bedford Championship Games in August”.

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Rebecca took 8th spot in the 15 strong field U20’s with 43.19m which takes her to 11th in the National Rankings and told the Club afterwards that “Getting into English schools was one of my main goals for this year so I was excited to represent Lancashire. It was great to watch all the other hammer competition on friday and Saturday. My competition was the second to last field event on Saturday. What I wanted to achieve from my competition was to throw over 40 metres and hopefully get a PB. I wasn’t expecting to get into the final as the competition was very tough and I was coming in at 11th position.After my second round throw I was in 12th position but my third throw I put all my effort in and threw 43.19 metres which is a new PB and jumped me to 8th. However I didn’t know this and was absolutely shocked to her my name read out for being in the final. I finished 8th in England and I couldn’t have been happier. The whole experience was brilliant and bring on next year. Well done to everyone who competed.”

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Charlotte took a great 5th place in her U15 Final of 24 throwers with 43.71m leaving her 6th in the National Rankings which is an amazing achievement only having taken up the Hammer earlier this season. Later she spoke to the Club saying that  she had “An amazing experience, met some brilliant new friends and talented athletes. Really encourages you to work harder to achieve new goals. Couldn’t have done it without the support of the hammer squad and of course coach Mick”. Charlotte also broke the Club Record.

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 Nick contested the U15 80m Hurdles finishing 4th in his Heat with 11.94 which was outside his PB of 11.6. Nick told us that had an average weekend getting ES standard and coming 4th in my heat and 10th/11th overall I think which is good, I had a good race with a good tail wind, overall I went for the experience“. Notwithstanding his time in this Race, Nick is still high up in the National Rankings at 13th.

Nicks Race Video HERE

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Ben who is currently lying in 13th place in the National Rankings with 14.23m finished 9th in his Final with a jump of 13.65m which was down on his best, but said afterwards that the “English Schools was a great experience and had such a good weekend with the team, disappointed with my performance but I was just happy to be there”.

Morgan (U17)  and Club Record holder is currently in 15th place in the National Rankings for 80m Hurdles with a time of 11.7,  finished 5th in her semi-final in 11.88 and missed out on getting to the Final. She told us that she “Had a really good weekend with the Lancashire team and had a good experience. Extremely happy that I got to the semi finals”

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Archie didn’t qualify from his first round heat placing 7th with a time of 11.74 ” English schools is a great experience for any athlete and an even better event to compete at. Although I didn’t do as well as I’d planned, it was still good to go there and compete with the countries top end athletes from all the other counties. It’s great to represent the county.”

Katie..ran in the 400m Hurdles and placed 4th in her Heat with a time of 66.61 and 9th fastest time overall. She said “It’s only taken 7 years of school athletics to make it this far, but it was definitely worth it! Such a great experience and well organised event with a good team spirit. Really happy with my run to come 9th in a strong field running 66.6s”.

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