It was a red hot day in Sheffield with conditions suiting all of the technical events but making things a little tougher for the Middle Distance and Endurance events. At the end of the day Blackburn Harriers finished 4th which given we were missing a number of athletes, bodes well for the remaining two fixtures.
DRAFT RESULTS (unscrutinised)
On the day, the Club had nine individual wins, eight second places and five 3rd places with one of the most impressive runs of the day by U17 Natalya Irvine who ran a new PB of 2.24.27 (2nd) in the ‘B’ 800m which was nearly ten seconds better than her old mark. There was another big PB for Joseph Howe in the 3000m Steeplechase, an event he won in a new PB time of 10.18.55 bettering his old mark by seventeen seconds. U17 Olivia Wilson also got in on the act with new PB’s in the 100m (14.45) over a second better and in her 200m (30.23) which was a two tenths improvement. Another highlight of the day for the Harriers was the return of Chris Matthews to competition for the first time since August 2012, a period which has seen him go through three bad injuries. His first competition on return saw him win a 800m in the Loughborough Students Open in 1.57.65 (25th May) and his second, here in Sheffield saw him run a perfect race, sitting in the front three and then edging out Andy Benson to take the win in 4.02.52. Another highlight was the debut on the track of V40 Joanne Nelson in the 3000m. Joanne has never raced on the track before but has built up a reputation as an Endurance runner, winning the Liverpool Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon last week for the second year running. In the 3000m Joanne finished 4th in a time of 10.38.49, a time which i suspect will be coming down before the end of the season. V45 Andy Buttery continued his good season with a 4.33.95 1500m (4th) which leaves him in 17th place in the V45 National Rankings.
In the Sprints Jamie Vickery took on the 100/200m double posting 11.91 and 23.69 for 4th spot in both, while Dominic Bretherton also took 4th in the 100m (11.63) and Paul Coffey 6th in the 200m (25.06). Jamie then took on the 110m Hurdles (2nd) in 20.6, the Hammer ‘B’ in 5th (16.79m) and then added the Pole Vault and 4 x 100m Relay for the Team. Oliver Aspden was back competing for the first time since August 2015 and was understandably a little ring rusty. He still finished 2nd in the 110m Hurdles ‘A’ in 17.03, took on the ‘B’ Pole Vault and both Relays.
Missing our main women sprinters U17 Chloe Bleeks and Olivia Wilson did a great job filling in with Chloe running 28.62 in the 200m and Olivia 30.23 as well as 14.45 for Olivia in the 100m. Olivia (67.26) and Phoebe Howe (65.59) took on the 400m with Phoebe then taking 3rd in the 400m Hurdles (78.85) and Katie Buckingham winning the ‘B’ 400m Hurdles (72.52). The Team spirit and commitment of these young women athletes is really to be admired.
Great to see Joe Pearse and Ben Aspinall back jumping too. Joe won his High Jump with a clearance of 2.00m whilst Ben, another athlete who has only competed once this year (Bucs) and before that his last competition was August 2015, won the Triple Jump with a leap of 13.27m and 5th in the Long Jump (5.77m). New member U17 Tom Doherty is another promising young athlete who was carrying a knee niggle on the day, still managed to take 2nd in the ‘B’ Triple Jump with 11.88m and 5th in the ‘B’ Long Jump (4.96m). John iLunga took 3rd place in the High Jump with 1.55m.
Again, missing our regular jumpers, Hannah Cookson, Maddie Elliott, Chloe Bleeks and Phoebe Howe did a great job covering the Women’s Jumps with Hannah jumping 4.02m in the Long Jump ‘A’, Maddie 3.38m in the ‘B’, Chloe Bleeks 8.99m in the ‘A’ Triple Jump and Phoebe 7.44m in the ‘B’.
A pretty tasty Men’s 400m saw Ross Liddle run a new PB of 52.96 and still finished 6th whilst Connor Makin, another of our athletes who hasn’t competed since July 2015 also placed 6th in 58.81.
On to the 800m where Zac Howe, who will be competing at the British Championships, ran a pretty good race to win the ‘A’ in 1.53.82 nearly two seconds clear of 2nd place. Ben Fish who will always do anything to help the Club ran the ‘B’ 800m and finished in a good 3rd spot with 2.03.27. Chris Davies carried on his good record in the Steeplechase, scoring another win in the ‘B’ (11.01.74) to back up the win in the ‘A’ by Joe Howe. The 5000m resulted in a double win for the Harriers with Ben Fish taking the ‘A’ in 15.21.88 and Tim Raynes the ‘B’ in 15.30.50. David Rigby made Ben and Tim really fight for it in very hot conditions which made for a compelling race, with the outcome in the ‘A’ Race undecided until the last metres. In the Women’s 1500m U17 Maddie Elliott ran the ‘A’ coming home in a good 2nd place (4.56.78) and Katie Buckingham also took 2nd spot in the ‘B’ (5.23.36).
In the Throws Rebecca Orrell who had virtually no sleep due to work over the previous days took on Hammer (3rd with 40.90m) – Discus (5th with 23.05m) – Shot Putt (6th with 8.11m) which was a great effort by her and another example of getting stuck in for the Team. Natalya Irvine, Katie Buckingham and Maddie Elliott all helped out with Natalya throwing 9.40m in the Hammer for the point and 6.17m (5th) in the Shot Putt. Katie reached 13.09m in the Discus whilst Maddie threw 13.38m in the Javelin. Olivia Wilson stepped in to the Javelin ‘A’ with a throw of 16.74m (6th).
In the Men’s Throws Connor Davison took over from Simon Brown and performed pretty solidly with the senior weights placing 4th in the Discus (25.18m), 5th in the Javelin (28.18m) and 4th in the Shot Putt (8.48m). Tony Balko took on all four throws throwing 29.12m in the Hammer (5th), 29.07 in the Discus (5th), 28.55m in the Javelin (5th) and 9.35m in the Shot Putt (5th).
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