Our latest round up of results features track & field, trail races and duathlons which have taken place over the last week or so involving Blackburn Harriers athletes.

May 6th

Back at Trafford for the second of this years Grand Prix Series which once again was run in good condiitions, producing good results for the Harriers athletes competing on the night. (RESULTS). The night got off to a very good start for the Club’s athletes in the 3000m – 5 Heats featuring over 100 entries. In the first heat Seniors Ross Harrison and Ben Makin finished in 4th and 5th places respectively – Ross setting a new PB of 8.24.69 as he went with the pace at the front whilst team mate Ben, having last run a 3000m in 2023, knocked a huge 26 seconds off that with a new PB of 8.28.06 in a well paced run. On to the 800m races and first up was U20 Ben Stratton clocking 1.55.35 in Heat 1 and in Heat 6 – bottom of age U20 Ethan Cutler – backed up his 1500m new personal best this season with another, clocking 2.06.44. Heat 9 had the Harriers in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places with first year U17 George Holman improving his 800m time by six seconds for a new PB of 2.14.95 with U20 Poppi Watson also running a new PB of 2.18.42 in 2nd and first year U17 Agatha Taylor clocking a seasons best time of 2.19.05 in 3rd position.

Ross Harrison (301)

Ben Makin (47)

Ben Stratton (50)

Moving to the 1500m races and it was another new PB on the night – number 5 at that stage – for U17 Sam Aspey who improved his time by three seconds in clocking 4.07.97 –  in the same Heat U15 Jack Baranowski clocked 4.16.71 in 11th spot – followed by U17 Henry Ward running a time of 4.18.40, just three tenths outside his best in the following Heat. Bottom of age U20 Matthew Smith ran his first race of the season and his first this year following injuries and made an instant impact, demonstrating his training is going very well as he won his Heat 4 in a big new PB of 4.13.23 – a nine second improvement over his 2024 time. V40 Marcin Baranowski then ran another PB – number 7 on the night – as he clocked 4.35.49 iin 4th pace (Heat 5), placing him at 26 in the V40 National Rankings. Final race of the night – Heat 7 of the 1500m – had four Blackburn Harriers in the line up – U20 Keira Haxton was the first Harrier across the finishing line in 2nd place running 5.05.08 which was her first race since June 2024; first year U17 Emma Robertshaw placed 5th in a time of 5.09.86, nearly 5 seconds improvement on her only other race since October 2024; Lottie Hesketh – also a first year U17 – was running her first track race June 2024 and ran a new PB of 5.15.09 and V35 Sara Baranowska clocked 5.27.77 in 9th and a seasons best. In Field events – Matthew Heywood was entered in to the Hammer competition featuring 14 athletes of mixed age – male and female. Matthew had a best of 46.47m which placed him 3rd in the Senior Men’s group throwing the 7.26kg Hammer.

Marc in Baranowski (242)

Matthew Smith (254)

On the same evening – May 6th – Tamzin Osborne, starting her 2nd year as an U17 was competing at her first outdoor Pole Vault competition after competing four times indoors over the winter period. At the Vault Manchester meeting, Tamzin cleared 3.01m – this competition being followed up by the Lancashire T&F Championships in Blackbpool on may 10/11th.

Tamzin Osborne

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May 5th

Bank Holiday Monday saw the hosting of the Oxford Bannister Miles at the famous track where the first ever sub 4 minute mile was run. Blackburn Harriers Oliver Gill made the trip down there to be part not only of the event, but also the history. Oliver – bottom of age U20 – lined up in the Men’s D Mile race – all races being over the Mile – as part of a twelve man field. He had never run over the mile distance previously so was making his debut and did really well clocking 4.22.78 in 4th spot & 2nd U20 out of the six U20’s racing. The race was won by senior athlete Archie Lawson (4.16.09) from U20 Thomas Loynes in 2nd (4.16.39) and senior athlete William Driscoll in 3rd (4.20.82).

Oliver Gill (3)

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May 3rd

Over in America, Rob Warner-Judd ran in the 10000m at the Save the 10000m fixture and set himself a new track PB, clocking 30.02.29 in 8th place. Following the race, we spoke to Rob who told us that he “was quite pleased with my race, was the first 10,000m I’ve finished on the track since 2017 so was nice to finally get a track PB. I would have liked slightly quicker but it a relatively small field so didn’t have a big group to be able to sit in and switch off which made it quite tough. But overall, happy with how the race went“.(RESULTS)

Rob Warner-Judd (13)

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May 2nd – 4th

The BUCS Championships bring together track and field athletes from around the countries universities and take place on an annual basis. Blackburn Harriers had athletes competing in the champkionships hosted at Sportcity – Abigail McAndrew and Dexta Thompson in the 1500m, Isabel Holt in the 5000m and George Whittaker in multi-events (400m; 110m Hurdles & Javelin). Abigail qualified for the semi-final in the 1500m clocking 4.43.16 in her heat before going on to qualify from the semi-final, taking 2nd place in a time of 4.27.83. Her third 1500m race in three days saw her in the Final, clocking 4.26.30 in 5th spot and afterwards Abigail told the Club that she was  “Really happy with my result at my first bucs outdoors, my first time doing 3 rounds in 3 days, and managed to recover well and feel good going into all three races ! Happy with my 5th place finish in the final with a big 800m burn up at the end“.

Dexta also took on the 1500m and was drawn in Heat 2 of 5 Heats, running a good race to take 2nd place in a time of 3.56.75 and qualifying for the semi-final. Two semi-finals which had Dexta in the second one, where he ran 4.00.23 in 8th place and didn’t qualify for the Final. Sharing his thoughts about how the championships had gopne for him, Dexta told us “The Heat was a perfect race tactically to get me into the semis, with my positioning being very good. In the semis, the race set off very slowly and i moved up to the front for a lap to get better positioning, but happened to let people come past and see me boxed again. With 250m to go, I moved back to go around and kick, but in doing so lost momentum and had to fight back up, leaving just a little too much work to do to qualify for the finals. Great experience to start the season though“.

Isabel was in the longer distance race of 5000m which took place on day three of the championships and split into an A & B Final – Isabel comepting in the A Final. Her personal best time for the 5000m going into the race was 16.42.51 and she knocked another 7 seconds off that to set herself a new PB of 16.35.74 in 9th place – a time that lifts her into 2nd place in the U20 National Rankings and inside the UKA European U20 Standard. Afterwards Isabel told us “I’m pleased with my first BUCS race considering the quality of the field and I can use this now going into the track season. My time was a little bit slower than I hoped but that’s championship racing. Was a great experience and so much learning opportunities to take away.”

George started off his championships in good style, setting himself a new PB in the Javelin with a new PB throw of 42.87m which gave hime 5th place in the B Final – and from there – he went into the 400m Heats clocking 54.26 which wasn’t enough to see him qualify for the semi-final; similarly he didn’t qualify for the semi-final in the 110m Hurdles out of Heat 2.

Abigail McAndrew

Dexta Thompson

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May 7th

This years Astley Park Trail series began on Wednesday with eleven Blackburn Harriers among the 124 runners who completed the race. Leading them home was Tom Blaney who recently set a new Marathon personal best of 2.37 – Tom finished in 2nd spot running 21.10 behind the winner, David Birtwistle (21.02). Next through the finish line was V55 Matt Nuttall in 13th spot (23.42) with V45 Marco Pacelli just one place further back in 14th (23.54), V55 Paul Guinan in 16th spot running 24.00, V55 David Almond – 27th running 25.16, V55 Mark Almond placing 29th in a time of 25.26, V40 Dominic Bretherton running 26.14 in 34th spot, 4th Junior female on the night – Isabella Pacelli running 27.24 in 41st, V50 John Aspey coming home in 56th place (29.17), Gina Preston-Kelly placing 17th in the Women’s Race (30.29) and V50 Sarah Krige – 38th in the Women’s race running 36.14. (RESULTS) In the Junior Races – sisters Lyra and Esme Krige both ran – Lyra finishing 2nd U15 female in 5.15 and 7th overall whilst Esme placed 3rd in the F12 category running 6.10. (RESULTS)

L-R Tom Blaney – Paul Guinan – Matt Nuttall – Sarah Krige – Mark Almond – Dominic Bretherton – Marco Pacelli – Gina Preston-Kelly – Isabella Pacelli

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Stephen Hall tried his hand at one of the Wild Deer Events – a Sprint Duathlon – comprising a run, bike ride and a second run. Stephen had a good day as he placed 2nd in a time of 69.58 and was the first Vet too, posting 20.04 for Run 1, 39.43 for the Bike Ride and 8.54 for Run 2 – telling the Club afterwards that it was “A great little event and definitely something I’ll be doing more of“. (RESULTS)

Stephen Hall

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