Trafford Grand Prix – Tuesday June 12th

A good night for the Harriers at the latest Trafford meeting with a number of athletes all improving their personal bests. The evening kicked off with a great 3000m ‘A’ Race which saw Blackburn Harriers Tim Raynes whose 3000m personal best was 8.34.14 get in amongst a field featuring athletes with personal bests from 7.46 through to 8.30. Tim eventually finished 17th clocking a time just half a second outside his best of 8.34.66 as the race was won by Jonny Mellor in a time of 8.04.39 from Tom Lancashire in 2nd and Charlie Hulson in 3rd – just a second separating the three of them at the line.

RESULTS

James Marchant ran the second race in the BMC 800m (RESULTS) equaling his personal best in a time of 1.53.30 set at Loughborough just a week ago and showing great consistency of form.

(James Marchant Number 611)

Over on the Field, Tony Balko (V50) was setting the sixth new personal best on the night for the Harriers with a new PB in the Discus (1.5kg) winning the event with a throw of 36.55m – following that up with a 3rd place throw of 10.48m in the Shot Putt (6kg).

Joe Gebbie and Sam Hodkinson ran the 800m in Heat 4, both of them having great runs to record new PB’s. U20 Joe went into the race with a best of 2.05.7 and ran a great back straight and home straight to chop a huge three and half seconds off he time to set a new PB of 2.02.1 in 3rd place. Bottom of age U17 Sam emulated that run as he cut nearly three seonds of his best for a new PB of 2.04.9 in 7th position.

U17 Maddie Elliott made it three new PB’s on the night as she chopped four and half seconds off her best time to-date coming home in 4th place with a new PB of 2.16.36 as did U20 Freya Black who bettered her previous best time by two and half seconds to set a new PB of 2.24.78 in 5th spot – a 13 second improvement over last year. Eleesha Charnley was the first girl home in this Heat with a time of 2.23.27. Ellen Sagar-Hesketh ran in the next Heat and clocked a time of 2.25.42 in 8th place followed by U17 Amy Davies in the final 800m Heat of the night where she placed 2nd in 2.30.54, a couple of seconds outsider her best over the distance. Katie Buckingham made it five new PB’s on the night as she broke the 5 minute barrier for just the second time over 1500m clocking a new best time of 4.58.51.

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Potteries ‘Arf – Sunday June 10th

Ben Fish took on the Potteries ‘Arf, which is a notoriously tough race even without the heat of the summer that the athletes encountered last Sunday. Over two thousand entered the race which was eventually won by Matt Clowes in a time of 66.53 with Ben in 2nd place and two minutes clear of 3rd, clocking 69.18.

Video of Start

RESULTS

Afrer the race, Ben shared his thoughts with the Club commenting “Yeah it was tough, I knew Clowes was running and if he was in top form I’d have my work cut out. I had a go and we were together for the first few miles. After that he got away and ran a phenomenal time on that course, taking 45 secs off the record. I was a little disappointed I wasn’t closer and think I should have run 30-45 secs quicker”.

(Photo courtesy of Mick Hall Photos)

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Northern Championships

Ross Liddle set a new personal best for the 200m at the Northern Athletics Championships over the weekend. Ross qualified for the Final from his Heat clocking a new PB time of 22.73 before placing 7th in the Final with a time of 22.84. Dominic Bretherton ran the 100m posting 11.84 in his Heat to miss out on qualification for the Final.

RESULTS

     

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Weets Fell Race – Saturday June 9th

Race 6 in this years Burnley & Pendle Grand Prix Series was on the Fells which saw a new Course Record set by the winner – Gary Priestley – in a time of 37.09.

SENIOR & JUNIOR RESULTS

John Horrocks had a very solid run in 16th place overall psoting a time of 42.57 with V50 Gary Pearse in 49th place in a time of 48.41. In the Junior Races Dexta Thompson ran the U15 Race which seemed unduly long as he placed 3rd overall in a time fo 43.15. The U13’s Race had four Blackburn Harriers running with Daniel Smith 5th (4.07), Codie Dewhurst 6th (4.13), Oliver Gill 7th (4.14) and Libby Neal 16th in a time of 4.53. The U11’s Race had thirty nine youngsters with Imogen Robinson 5th in 3.02, brother Theo Robinson in 8th place (3.07) and Felix Thompson 11th in 3.11.

Keith Gill was watching the action for the Harriers and commented “First up were the U11’s with 3 runners. Performance of the day came from Imogen Dawson-Robinson, after a strong climb she took a very heavy fall on the fastest part of the decent. After a short dusting down, she sprinted to the finish and with a big smile was the first Harrier home in 3:02 for 5th place and 2nd girl. Amazing. Next was Theo Dawson-Robinson in 3:07 for 8th overall closely followed by Felix Thompson in 3:11 for 11th place overall. Next was the U13 race with 4 runners. The 3 boys were closely grouped for most of the race, Daniel Smith found a bit of space during the decent and was first Harrier home in 4:07 and 5th overall, closely followed by Codie Dewhurst in 4.13 and 6th place and Oliver Gill 4:14 for 7th place. Next Harrier home after a solid all round run was Libby-Kate Neal with 4:53 and 16th place overall. Finally the last Junior race was the U15s with just 1 runner, Dexta Thompson. Race details were nowhere to be seen at registration a bit of digging revealed “start with the main race and the marshalls will turn you round at an earlier point”. Expecting a short training run, Dexta had to adapt to a long gruelling course, and 43 mins 15 seconds later returned to the finish for 3rd place”.

        

 

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Knowl Hill Fell Race – Sunday June 10th

This Race featured one hundred and eighty four finishers and was the third of three races making up the Rochdale 3 Day event which Carmen Byrne had entered. She had a very good weekend too – finishing 2nd Woman overall and 1st V40 Woman.

3 Day Events Results

Her cumulative time total for the three races was 2hrs 29.49 just 12 seconds in front of 3rd place and over two minutes behind the winner. Race 1 saw her placed 21st overall, 3rd woman and 1st V40 – onto Day 2 where she finished 16th overall, 2nd Woman and 1st V40 again and on Day 3 on the Knowl Hill Fell Race she placed 51st overall, 5th Woman and made it a hat-trick of V40 wins. In this race she was joined by Harriers Joanne Nelson and Paul Brindle – which had Joanne winning the Women’s Race and also the V45 category in a time of 57.10 with Paul in 35th clocking 58.17 and Carmen 51st in a time of 60.41.

Knowl Hill Results

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Catforth 10k – Sunday June 10th

One hundred and fifty two runners braced the blistering heat of the day at Catforth 10k which saw Ben Costello finish in 6th spot overall clocking a time of 35.34 – Victoria Mousley came across the finish line in 14th spot in 39.26 which earned her the runner up prize in the Women’s Race.

(Victoria receiving her prize from Terry Lonergan)

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V60 Tony Greenwood finished 17th overall out of a field eighty six in the City of Manchester 5k Series – Race (1) – posting a time of 19.03.

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And for something a little different – Jan Buckingham and Michelle Teare had a go at the Ribble Valley 100km Sportive at the weekend – Jan commenting that it was “a tough little event, the Ribble Valley 100km sportive today. Very hilly over the hills and Dales of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Just over 5 hours, Mrs T a mountain goat, kept me going”.