This weekend saw Witton Park bathed in sunshine and graced with some great competition and performances by athletes from athletic clubs across the County. Personal bests, Medals, Championships Best performances and qualification for English Schools Finals were all being fought for.
All Championship RESULTS
Blackburn Harriers had a great weekend. Some athletes in the U13’s particularly, were competing at their first ever Championships whilst others were at their second or third – some, in the Senior ranks had competed at many County Championships and all wanted to succeed.
Overall at the weekend the Club posted eighty new personal bests on the Track and in Field events. In terms of Medals the Harriers won 17 Gold, 17 Silver and 13 Bronze Medals as well as witnessing a number of athletes attaining English Schools qualification standards – U15 Nicky Saunders set the qualification standard for Discus; U15 Matt Heywood achieved it in the Hammer; U17 Sam Gaskell achieved in the Hammer also; U15 Myah Booth set it in the 75m Hurdles and then did it in the Shot Putt, just missing a Club record by 2 cms. Matt Ramsden was just two seconds short in the 17 Mens 3000m and Cameron Harris just over a metre short in the U17 Men’s Javelin.
There were too many events and too many athletes to cover them all in a website report and apologies to those who have missed out – but among the highlights was the performance of bottom of age U17 Matt Ramsden who won Silver in the 1500m and 3000m – setting new PB’s by twelve seconds in the 1500m of 4.14.1 and 8.58.6 in the 3000m, over 23 seconds better than his previous best. Lots of good performances and new personal best times by other members of the Clubs endurance athletes were set over the weekend including a double new PB for U17 Sam Hodkinson and again another bottom of age athlete. Sam knocked two seconds off his 1500m time to set a new PB of 4.27.3 (8th) and knocked over a second off his 800m time finishing 6th in 2.07.6. Kyle Taylor-Pomfret cut 8 seconds off his U15 1500m time placing 9th in 5.00.0 and there was a new PB also for Zachary Walmsley in the same race by over two seconds as he finished 11th in 5.11.8. U15 Girl Hollie Cubbon set a new PB in the U15 Girls 1500m by a second and a half placing 7th in 5.13.8.
Another massive new PB for U20 Joe Gebbie who cut 8 seconds off his time with 4.15.0 as he placed 5th in the Final. Ben Costello ran his first ever 5000m Track Race for the Club in the Northern League last week (16.11) and improved his time one week later by over 17 seconds to set a new PB of 15.53.8 as he took the Bronze Medal. Chris Davies won the Vets Gold in the 5000m (16.32.0). The Harriers also won the Team Gold – Ben Costello (15.53.8), Tom Blaney (16.30.7) and Chris Davies (16.32.0) the counters. The Vets Gold winning Team consisted of Chris Davies, Mat Nuttall and Paul Guinan.
Day (1) also saw Medal winning performances by Kate Cookson in the U13 1500m 3rd in 5.34.5, Amy Davies in the U17 Women’s 1500m taking the Silver Medal in 5.03.5, Bronze for U20 Maddie Elliott in the 1500m (4.55.2) and a Gold Medal for James Marchant as he won the Senior Men’s 1500m in a time of 4.06.1 on his debut for the Harriers. It was James first track race for two years after going through 2017 with aggravating injuries and afterwards he spoke to the Club commenting “First of all, I have to say what a great feeling it is to be back on the track racing, after what has been a pretty tough 2 years.. With only 4 weeks of consistent training under my belt, i was certainly sceptical of how todays race would go.. the thought of being back on the track, and representing a new club for the first time was exciting. A great feeling to get the first one out of the way, and a 1st place to go with it, which was great! Looking forward to the rest of the season with Blackburn Harriers, hopefully good things to come!”
There were new PB’s for U13 Boys Isaac Butler who set his in the Heat of the 800m with 2.34.0 which qualified him for the Final as did Saul Sharp in his 800m Heat knocking 2 seconds off his previous best to clock 2.40.7 (5th). U13 Keira Haxton cut 10 seconds off her best as she qualified for the Final of the 800m in 2.38.7 before running 2.38.9 in the Final. U15 Harvey Ashworth also ran a big PB by four seconds as he won his 800m Heat to qualify for the Final in 2.11.6 where he ran 2.15.8 in 5th spot. U15 Hayden Mercer had a very good run as he won his Heat of the 800m in 2.15.1 but unfortunately missed the Final because of a change to the timetable. Ethan Barbarewicz just missed a new personal best as he ran 2.32.4, just half a second off his best time. More new PB’s came for the U15 Boys as David Holman reduced his time form 2.31.0 to 2.28.6 in the 800m Heats and George Whittaker took four seconds off his time for a new PB of 2.21.6 in the 800m Heat. Eleesha Charnley had a great weekend setting a new 800m PB in the Heats of 2.22.8 before finishing 4th in the Final in 2.24.6. Sophie Stanworth had a very good run to qualify also for the U15 Girls 800m Final as she placed 3rd in the Heat with 2.26.0, going on to place 6th in the Final.
Personal bests and medals continued in the Hurdles events which were topped off by U15 Myah Booth winning both her Heat and Final in an English Schools qualifying time 11.7 and taking the Gold Medal. U13’s Daniel Smith (16.7) in 5th and Codie Dewhurst 16.8 in 6th both set new PB’s in the 75m Hurdles as did Lucy Ramsden in the U13 Girls 70m Hurdles who knocked off over half a second to clock 12.8. Ben Boocock replicated that performance as he took over half a second off his time to set a new PB of 12.8 in the U15 Boys 80m Hurdles to win the Bronze Medal. It was double Gold for U17 Solomon Brown as he won the 400m Hurdles in a new PB time of 58.6 and then won the 100m Hurdles in 14.9, his first attempt at the event. It was Silver for John Ilunga in the Senior Men’s 400m Hurdles with a time of 69.6 and Gold in the 110m Hurdles in 19.7. Nick Smith also did the double winning the U20 400m Hurdles and the 3000m. U17 Liberty Thompson cut half a second off her best time to set a new PB of 13.9 in the Final of the 80m Hurdles. Millie Coy in her first attempt at the event won herself a Silver Medal as she clocked 47.7 in the Final of the U17 Women’s 300m Hurdles Final.
Top performances too in the Sprints. U15’s Boys Kyle Mashiter and Ethan Downes both set new PB’s as they won their Heats and went on to the Final which saw Kyle win in a new PB time of 11.6 and Ethan take the Silver medal, also in a new PB time of 11.9. U17 Baily Madden equaled her personal best in the heats of the 100m (12.6) in 2nd place and then ran 12.7 in the Final to take the Bronze. Unfortunately she fell in the Final of the 200m when she was in a Medal position. New PB’s also for U17 Megan Tippett in the 100m Heats – 13.5 down by three tenths and for U13’s Kate Cookson who ran new PB’s of 14.4 in the Heats and 14.3 in the Final (5th) and Amelia Burton in only her second competition chopping seven tenths off her best to set a new PB time of 14.9 in the Heats. Also new PB’s for the U13 Girls in the 200m Heats as Lucy Ramsden ran 30.19, Amelia Burton 31.3 and Keira Haxton 32.3. Kyle Taylor-Pomfret wasn’t going home without yet another new PB which he duly delivered in the U15 Boys 200m Heats (29.3).
Also running well were Ben Whittaker who equaled his personal best in the 200m U17 Men’s Final clocking 24.7 (5th), Abigail Armas equaled her best time of 14.0 in the U17 Women’s 100m Heats and Amy Wiggans knocked over a second off her 200m time in the U15 Girls 200m Heats with 28.3. U20 Ross Liddle set two new PB’s in the 100m placing 5th in the Final with 11.4 and 4th in the 200m Final with 22.8 whilst in the Senior Sprints, Dominic Bretherton was the only entry in the 100m and ran with the senior women crossing the line first in 11.4 before going onto take Bronze in the 200m in 23.5. Bottom of age U13 Harrison Allcock continues to impress as he ran a new PB in the 100m Final of 14.1. Eleesha Charnley set a great new PB in the U15 Girls 300m to win Silver in 42.8 after breaking her then PB in the Heats. In the U17 Race – Millie Coy set a new PB of 42.6 in 4th and Aysha Karolia did likewise with 46.5. Charlie Coy won the U20 Women’s 400m in 60.8 with Chloe Bleeks setting a new PB in 5th place (65.40) after earlier setting a new Long Jump PB of 4.67m. on Day 2 Charlie went on to win Silver in the 200m in a time of 27.5 and Chloe the Bronze (27.7).
In the Throws there were some very good highlights for the Club with one of them being Myah Booth who set three consecutive English Schools qualifying distances as she won the U15 Girls Shot Putt with a new PB distance of 10.99, having previous throws of 10.61m and 10.67m. Abigail Brown (U17) had a very good weekend as she set three new PB’s and picked up three championship Medals – coming 3rd in the Shot Putt with 8.44m, 2nd in the Discus (24.40m) and 2nd in the Hammer (38.46m). New PB’s for Caroline Woodworth in the U13 Girls Throws which saw her finish 6th in the Shot Putt Final with 6.38m and 4th in the Discus Final with 17.57 before going on to win a Bronze Medal in the Javelin (19.60m). In the U15 Boys Throws George Whittaker won Bronze in the Javelin with a new PB distance of 29.27m as did Kieran Carroll who won Silver in the same event with his throw of 31.20m coupled with a big new PB for Joe Sims who threw 15.36 nearly ten metres further than he had done before. U15 Girls Izzy Thompson and Nicky Saunders had a good championships between them with Izzy setting new PB’s in the Discus Final, winning Bronze with 24.12m and that, after setting another new PB in the Hammer as she placed 4th in the Final with 25.21m, some three metres better than her previous best distance.
Nicky achieved the English Schools qualifying distance as she threw 27.56m in the Discus Final, came 5th in the Hammer with 20.70m and 4th in the Javelin with 21.86m. Sisters Grace and Madison Bontoft had a good weekend too which saw U15 Grace finish 8th in the Discus with a new PB of 16.22m and Madison in the Javelin, also with a new PB of 11.58m. U13 Codie Dewhurst who will take anything on, set a new PB in the Shot Putt with 5.56m for 6th place in the Final. U20 Men – Anthony Kent and Lucas Davies picked up Medals at the Championships which saw Anthony win the Shot Putt with a new PB throw of 12.26 and the Discus with 38.09m whilst Lucas picked up a Bronze Medal in the Javelin with a throw of 31.73m and a new PB by over two metres. Another huge highlight of the weekend was the win in the U17 Men’s Hammer for Sam Gaskell who threw a massive new PB of 64.65m which bettered the National and English Schools qualifying standards by a long way – the throw moved Sam up to 2nd place in the National Rankings. Senior Man Tony Balko – won Bronze in the Hammer with a new PB of 36.52m before going on to win the Silver Medal in the Discus (31.72m). U15 Kieran Carroll put on nearly four metres as he picked up a Silver Medal in the Javelin with a new PB distance of 31.20. Cameron Harris went to number 10 in the National rankings after his fine throw of 50.75 won him the Gold Medal in the U17 Men’s Javelin Final. Anna Peers was on target again picking up two Gold Medals and a Silver with a win in the Senior Women’s Javelin (37.99m), a win in the Discus (36.92m) and a Silver in the Shot Putt (10.40m). U15 Matt Heywood has really started to develop in Hammer, Shot and Discus. The Championships saw him win Silver in the Shot Putt with a throw of 8.94m, finish 5th in the Discus (24.89m) and win the Hammer with an English Schools qualifying distance and a new PB of 39.87m.
