Starting off with Blackburn Harriers Throwers in this latest report at the annual Liverpool Jumps & Throws Meeting on Saturday April 13th at Wavertree. Olivia Thomasson – first year U17 – finished 2nd in the U17W event with a best throw of 31.46m, just 44cms shy of her best in her first competition of the season. (RESULTS)

Ava Leigh (U23) was competing at an Open meeting over the weekend of April 14th at Loughborough in the Hammer featuring seven female and one male athlete. Ava placed 4th overall with a distance of 48.52m, the event being won with a throw of 50.64m. (RESULTS)

Meanwhile, over in America Matthew Heywood (U23) took part in the Trojan Relays ’24 T&F Meeting in the US on Friday April 13th (RESULTS) – eleven Hammer throwers making up the Pool. Matthew finished with a best of 46.34m in 5th position overall, the competition being won with a throw of 58.53m.

Charlotte Williams was throwing in the 64th Annual Mt. SAC Relays  on Saturday April 20th – 25 Women Hammer Athletes competing in two pools. Charlotte finished with a distance of 54.90m in 12th place overall. (RESULTS).

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The AOC Sport National Championships took place on Saturday April 20th in Nottingham and featured two Blackburn Harriers – Dexta Thompson and Isabel Holt – proving to be a good day for both of them as each won their race and the national title. (RESULTS). Sixty one athletes lined up in the male race which was won by Dexta in a time of 15.16 from East Norfolk’s Lewis English in 2nd running 15.58. Isabel was one of 45 athletes lining up for the Women’s race which she won in a time of 15.13 from Kiera Atkinson (Colchester) in 2nd (15.28). After the race, both athletes spoke to the Club about their race and the day with Isabel telling us that she “Had a great time racing at Nottingham yesterday and really pleased to come away with the win.“ with Dexta also commenting “The weather today was perfect to run and therefore meant good things were to come. I set off fast and confident, with intention. I stuck in a nice rhythm for a few kilometres and gave a big last km uphill to gap myself from second. Nice to get a hard 5k and see my fitness, and a bonus to take a national title too.“

Moving from cross country to Road and Fell next for the Harriers athletes over the weekend. Three athletes from the Club went over to Blackpool to participate in the Festival of Running which covered 2k, 5k, 10k Half-Marathon and full Marathon. The Club’s trio took on the 5k with very good results. (RESULTS). Badr Alainzay came home in 2nd spot out of a field of 170 runners, posting a time of 17.10.05 behind the winner – Luke Minns (15.57.06). Dominic Bretherton was next across the line in 10th place and 1st V40 with his time of 20.03.06 with the Women’s Race Winner Rebecca Ward one place behind in 11th spot running 20.29.05.

  

L-R Dominic Bretherton – Rebecca Ward – Badr Alainzay

Down in London the weekend kicked off with the Mini-Marathon in which U13 Millie Jordan was running for the North West team and had a great run placing 16th overall in the national results and 2nd in the Region with her time of 9.22 for the 2.6k race.

Millie Jordan

One day later and it was the turn of the full Marathon in which Blackburn Harriers Katie Buckingham and Matt Wood both took part. Matt had a great run clocking 2hr 59.58 to just dip under the 3 hour barrier. Katie was running her first Marathon and for The Erasmus Uganda Charitable Trust, which raises funds in the UK to support children and schools in Uganda. The Good Samaritan School is a primary school based in Wakiso just outside Kampala. The charity has provided grants for the construction and maintenance of classrooms, dormitories, a kitchen and toilets at the school. Her finishing time of 3hr 27.26 in her first ever marathon and several minutes inside her target was outstanding and afterwards she shared her delight with the Club saying “First marathon, and what an experience it was! I ran the race almost perfectly, having heard the horror stories of hitting the wall, the aim was to enjoy the first 18miles, take it all in and not go too fast too soon! Despite maybe being a bit quicker than the 3.40 goal pace, it felt comfortable, from 18-20miles the focus was reaching the RunThrough cheer zone in Canary Wharf, then from here it was just a countdown, convincing myself it’s “only a 10k to go… Only a parkrun to go etc”, the crowd and pure enjoyment really carried me through to chase down the sub 3.30, a time I thought was way out of reach considering how training had gone! It really is amazing how the London buzz makes anything possible!! What an amazing week, and an incredible Debut marathon experience… I’m not sure what’s next which could ever top that!”

Katie has already raised over £1500 for her efforts in London and if you wish to help add to that, you can by following this link

Matt Wood with his dad Tony Wood

Katie Buckinham and sheer delight

Meanwhile on the Fells on Saturday it was the Duddon Dash Junior FRA Championships — Theo Robinson was taking part in the U17 age group race featuring forty five runners. (RESULTS). The race was won by Macclesfield’s Jake Ireland in a time of 37.34 with Theo placing 27th overall and 20th U17 male in a time of 47.30. Lottie Hesketh also ran in this ravce placing 12th U17 Woman in a time of 49.20.

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Trafford was the venue for the first of this years UKYDL Lower Age Group Match in North West Division one. Amazing weather in contrast to what athletes have had to put up with for months – sun, no wind and warmth bathed the track and field all day. Many thanks to our Officals today – Kevin Hogan, Lindsay Davies, Alison Hulme, Linzi Lancashire, Steve Brindle, Jean Hoyle, Isabella Pecelli,Claudine Smith. The team started out with 18 youngsters never having competed in track and field previously or had only had one competition between them, so to finish in 3rd place behind Sale and Team Isle of Man and in front of Leigh Harriers, Wigan and Southport Waterloo was a great perforance from them. Team Manager for the Boys and Girtls teams – Kate Taylor – was delighted with the performance at the first meeting of the year commenting “Just wanted to take 5 mins to thank all our wonderful athletes and their parents for making today such a fabulous day out. Some tremendous individual results and PBs and a high number of athletes competing for the first time on the track and field. We also had a number volunteering for events which they have not trained for or even tried before.. high jump, discus, javelin, shot, sprints, middle distance, hurdles and relays.. well done all. We even had the sun shining in Manchester! I hope you all enjoyed it.. I certainly did. It was great meeting athletes from different training groups. Such a wonderful team spirit with older athletes supporting younger ones and everyone cheering each other on.”

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L-R Emma Robertshaw – Lyra Krige – Bella McCredie – Evie Fort – Caris Peter-Thomas – Agatha Taylor

U15 Boys

Cracking start by Jack Duxbury and Tomi Birch as they won the U15 100m A & B race in 12.3 and 12.7 respectively, both setting new PB’s. Issac Brindle clocked 12.7 in winning the non-scoring race – equaling his personal best – and then teamed up with Jack Duxbury and again, winning the A and B 200m race – Jack knocking over a second off his best with a new PB of 25.1 and Issac clocking 26.1 in winning the B race. James Mcauley and Elliot Unsworth took on the 300m – James running 44.7 (6th) in the A and Elliot 46.3 and 2nd in the B. James then went and ran the 800m A race in 2.34.7 (6th) alongside Elliot who clocked a new PB by some seven seconds in 2nd place in the B (2.23.4). Keeping the personal bests going was George Holman in the A 1500m placing 3rd in 4.46.6 – a massive new PB by 21 seconds with team mate Liam Bennison placing 4th in the B (5.37.3). There was another double win, this time in the 80m Hurdles as Abdollh Shriha won the A race in 12.7 and a new PB by six tenths with team mate James Acton-Grieves winning the B race in 15.4 in his first ever competition over hurdles.

Jack Duxbury (1)

Tomi Birch (11)

Abdollh Shriha (1)

James Acton-Grieves (11)

Jack Duxbury and Abdollh Shriha paired up in the Long Jump – Jack leaping out to 4.84m in 4th spot in the A and Abdollh coming 2nd in the B with 4.68m. Abdollh followed that up with a win and a new PB in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.57m alongside James Acton-Grieves who also took the win in the B with a new PB height of 1.40m. Issac Brindle (5th) 6.90m and George Holman (3rd in the B)  with 6.34m took on the Shot Putt which was a new PB. George was on a roll and set himself a new PB in the Javelin by nearly 4m as he came 2nd in the A with 24.37m with team mate Liam Bennison also placing 2nd in the B with 10.25m in his first ever attempt at the event.

Jack Duxbury (1)

Abdollh Shriha

George Holman

The Relays saw the 4 x 100m squad produced a fine performance – (Tomi Birch–Issac Brindle–Abdollh Shriha–Jack Duxbury) to win in 51.0 from Sale in 2nd (52.2) and then took 3rd place in the 4 x 300m in 3.04.5 (James Mcauley–Elliot Unsworth–James Acton-Grieves– George Holman).

U15 GIRLS

Caris Peter-Thomas started off in 2nd place in the A 100m (13.0) with Evie Fort 3rd in the B clocking 14.1 after which the pair took on the 200m, Caris again taking 2nd spot in 27.2 with Evie running 28.9 for a new PB in 3rd spot. Isabella Finn posted a new PB in the non-scoring 100m with 13.8, an improvement by four tenths. Agatha Taylor and Bella McCredie paired up in the 300m which saw Agatha clock 43.5 in 2nd in the A and Bella 47.6 in 4th in the B race. Annie Heaps running in her first ever UKYDL joined with Agatha in the 800m – Agatha winning the A Race with a well judged finish in 2.21.6 with Annie 3rd in the B in 2.50.3. Holly Moore had a go for the first time in a non-scoring 800m, clocking 3.15 1. Lyra Krige and Emma Robertshaw took on the 1500m – Lyra placing 2nd in the A in a new PB time of 5.05.4 which was a massive half a minute improvement over her previous best and Emma, not having raced this year because of injury placing 2nd in the B race in 5.23.7. Holly Moore just missed a personal best in the 75m Hurdles with her 17.8 (6th).

Caris Peter-Thomas (1)

Evie Fort (11)

Agatha Taylor (1)

Bella McCredie (11)

Lyra Krige (1)

Annie Heaps (11)

Holly Moore

The field events had Isabella Finn finishing 4th in the A Long Jump with 3.85m – a whisker away from a new personal best alongside team mate Isabelle Pawson placing 4th in the B with 3.58m and again just shy of new best jump. Isabella then took on the High Jump for the very first time, clearing 1.15m in 2nd spot. Dana Juma took 2nd place in the Shot Putt with 8.15m – her first competition of the year as Bella McCredie helped the team by taking on the B where she threw 4.74m in 3rd place. Bella and Evie Fort again helped the team taking on the discus with distances of 8.97m and 6.54m respectively. Rounding off the field events with the Javelin – Dana Juma placed 6th in the A (12.39m) and Isabelle Pawson 5th in the B (8.66m).

Bella McCredie

The Relays produced two second places – in the 4 x 100m – (Isabelle Pawson–Evie Fort–Dan Juma–Caris Peter-Thomas) – clocked 53.6 in 2nd spot behind Sale whilst in the 4 x 300m – (Agatha Taylor – Annie Heaps – Emma Robertshaw–Bella McCredie) ran 3.14.2 in 2nd and again behind Sale.

Caris Peter-Thomas (1)

U13 BOYS

Lucas Pickens and Kai Milford ran the 75m – Lucas in 6th for a new PB of 11.8 and Kai also in 6th in the B with 11.7. Lucas then ran in the 150m A race clocking 23.8 with team mate Max Unthank clocking 22.6 in 3rd in the B race and his first ever race on the track. Oliver North was next up in the 800m, winning the A in 2.31.7 also in his first ever track race with his team mate Theo Addy running 2.52.6 in 3rd spot in the B. Max Unthank and Morgan Watson paired up for the 1200m – Max taking 2nd place in 4.00.7 with Morgan placing 2nd also in the B race (4.08.0). Kai Milford was taking on his first ever hurdle race clocking 15.4 in 3rd spot and then paired up with Lucas Pickens in the Long Jump – Lucas placing 3rd in the A with a 20cm new PB jump of 3.72m and Kai 2nd in the B (3.56m). Zakariya Haq threw 6.16m in the Shot Putt (4th) alongside Max Unthank taking on the Shot to help the team for the first time – placing 2nd in the B with a distance of 5.68m. Zakariya finished off the field events with a 3rd spot in the Javelin I(18.59m) for a new PB by close to a metre.  The Relay team of (Lucas Pickens–Morgan Watson–Zakariya Haq– Max Unthank) ran 61.6 in the 4 x 100m in 5th place.

Lucas Pickens (1)

Oliver North (1)

Max Unthank (1) – Morgan Watson (11)

Zakariya Haq

Bringing the baton home – Max Unthank

U13 GIRLS

In her first ever track race Seren Gooden did really well to take 2nd spot in the A 75m with a time of 10.9 as did Mimi iLunga, also 2nd in the B with 10.6 – Hannah Moore clocked 12.1 in the non-scoring 75m, going on to a 4th place finish in the 70m Hurdles (15.1). Seren and Mimi paired up again for the 150m races – Seren placing 2nd again in 21.9 with Mimi in 3rd in the B running 23.0. Amelia Pacelli clocked a big new PB in the 800m  with her time of 2.48.3 in 3rd place. The Long Jump saw Mimi take 5th spot in the A (3.08m) alongside Hannah Moore jumping 3.07m in 4th place in the B. The Relays team of (Hannah Moore–Amelia Pacelli–Mimi iLunga– Seren Gooden) ran well to place 2nd in the 4 x 100m with 60.8 behind Sale.

Amelia Pacelli (1)

Mimi iLunga (11)

Seren Gooden

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