Jess Wins London Big-Half – Tameside 5k with James & Stephen – Great North Run with Nick & TJ – Steven at Bury 10k – Helen 3rd at Ben Nevis – Matt 2nd Vet 55 at Helvellyn

Sep 9, 2025

A great start to the week and for the latest report on the activities of Blackburn Harriers. Jess Warner-Judd is in a build up to the New York Marathon which will be run on Sunday November 2nd. After clocking a time of 37.21 at the Falmotuth (USA) 7 mile road race and finishing in the top ten on August 17th, last weekend Jess ran in the London Big-Half Marathon and won the race in a time of 70.35 from Abbie Donnelly in 2nd (71.24) and Samantha Harrison in 3rd place (71.40). (RESULTS).

(Athletics Weekly Report – with Photos)

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Friday evening September 5th saw James Bretherton and Stephen Hall taking on the Tameside 5k (RESULTS) won by David Barrett in 14.45. V45 James finished in a top ten place running 16.14 and 2nd V45 with team mate V50 Stephen finishing with a time of 16.52 in 17th spot also 2nd in his age group category V50.

   

                                 James Bretherton (55)                                            Stephen Hall (27)

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At the weekend, it was the turn of the Great North Run Half-Marathon and prior to that on the Friday evening the 5k road race. Blackburn harriers Tanith-Jade Ellis and Nick Owen went up to the races – Tanith in the 5k on Saturday 6th September backed up by doing the Half-Marathon on Sunday and also Nick in the Half-Marathon on Sunday 7th September. In the 5k Tanith ran 21.00 which was a course PB for her and on Sunday was out again posting a time of 1hr 45.58 in the Half-Marathon. Nick was doing just his third race of the year having run the London Marathon in April and the 10k in Blackpool on August. V50 Nick had a good run to come home with a time of 1hr 31.33 and afterwards told the Harriers that he “Really enjoyed the event and happy with the result considering how busy it was and definitely not flat“.

Tanith Jade-Ellis

Nick Owen

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V35 Steven Willetts made a welcome return to road racing at the Bury Bid 10k on Sunday 7th September which featured nearly 1200 finishers. (RESULTS). Steven came home in 25th place overall running 40.10 – the race being won by Benjamin Kirkman in 32.05.

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Out on the Fells this week saw fine runs from Helen Leigh and Matt Nuttall. Helen had a cracking run finishing 3rd Woman and 1st Female V40 in a time of 2hr 04.32 which was a big new PB for her on the course. (RESULTS). Finishing top in her age group Helen won the Nevis Bank Hotel Shield alongside her Bronze Medal for coming hom in the top 3 in the Women’s race. Commenting on her social media later, Helen said that  “After last year’s heatwave horror show, I couldn’t really fail to have a better race this year.. so happy with a HUGE pb of 2.04, almost 10mins quicker than my best time, and on the new longer route“.

Helen Leigh

Meanwhile V55 Matt Nuttall was taking on the 2025 Helvellyn Triathlon on Sunday September 7th – a course that started with a 1500m open water swim, continued with a 59km bike ride and concluded with a 15km run. Three hundred and eighty eight athletes finished the race with Matt having a fine day coming home in 37th spot overall and 2nd in his age group category 55 – 59. Matt started off with a Swim (26.45) in 87th place and brought that down to 41st with a very good bike ride of 2hr 04.53 which took him into 41st spot before posting a time of 1hr  54.24 for the run. (RESULTS)

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