Royal Rumble – Bank Holiday Monday
It was an absolutely glorious night for a run on the moors on Monday night with hardly a cloud in the sky. The winner Jack Hindle praised the Race and the Course set up by Richard Taylor as “one that should attract a quality field” and it is hard to disagree with that.
Eight Blackburn Harriers featured in the Race with Jack Hindle taking his second successive victory on the moors in a time of 35.15, having won the Gala Race two weeks before. Second home was Tim Raynes in 35.41 and making it a one, two, three for the Harriers was Chris Davies in 35.48.
Next home was Tom Cubbon in 7th in a time of 41.27 followed by the first Woman in, Beckie Taylor (13th) in 44.28 and just one place behind came the 2nd Woman – Carly Edwards (14th) in a time of 45.23.
Sporting the very latest in smart headgear came Bryan Searby in 21st with a time of 49.09 and in 23rd, fresh from his holidays came Michael Sharp (50.14).
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Trafford Medal Meeting – Bank Holiday Monday
Some of the Harriers young athletes went to the Trafford Medal meeting which was also run in glorious conditions – Izzy Thompson, Nicky Saunders, Dexta Thompson, Liberty Thompson and Christie Sturgess.
There were new PB’s for Nicky Saunders in the U13 Girls Shot Putt with a throw of 7.44m placing 3rd, following that up with a 3rd in the Discus (21.56m) and 9th in the Javelin (19.03m). Next athlete earning a new PB was Dexta Thompson in the 150m coming home in 4th spot in a time of 24.99 which was nearly two seconds faster than his previous best. In the 600m Dexta, got pipped in a photo finish placing 2nd in 1.49.53 with the winner posting 1.49.48.
(Nicky and Izzy with their Coach – Jim Kerrigan)
Christie Sturgess made it a hat trick of new PB’s on the day when she finished 2nd in the 75m Hurdles (12.48) which was three tenths faster than she had run before. She went on to to take third in her Heat of the 150m (22.98) – there were 12 Heats in all – and then ran 11.43 in the 75m Sprint for 6th place. Liberty Thompson just missed out on new personal bests running a time of 14.76 in the 75m Hurdles and then 31.74 (5th) in the 200m. Izzy Thompson took two good 2nd places in the U13 Girls Shot Putt (7.57m), the Discus with a throw of 24.25m and reached 19.45m in the Javelin for 6th place out of a field of 16.
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BMC Gold Standard Races
Rob Warner is racing quite a lot of late and his latest outing saw him tackle the 1500m at the Stretford BMC Gold Standard Races on August 23rd. Rob came 8th overall in a second seasons best time of 3.54.05 in the last few days.
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Warrington Open Meeting – August 21st
A number of the Harriers youngsters went over to the Warrington Open Meeting at the weekend and posted some good results for them selves. Nicky Saunders (U13) set two new PB’s in the Shot Putt (4th) with a throw of 7.08m which was nearly three quarters of a metre improvement and again in the Javelin with a throw of 16.28m (8th), this time improving by a metre and a half.
U13 Myah Booth stepped up to the 3kg Shot Putt finishing in 2nd place with a throw of 7.81m which sets a mark for her at the new weight. In throwing 23.45m in the Javelin for 2nd place, Myah was setting another new mark for herself with the 500g Javelin, the first time she has competed with that weight. U15 Emily Warren was in winning form taking the 75m Hurdles.
Emma Love was also in PB territory placing 4th in the U13 High Jump with a new PB clearance of 1.30m and then went onto the Long Jump finishing 13th out of a massive entry of 27 athletes, jumping 3.82m. Liberty Thompson (U15) set a new PB for herself in the Long Jump reaching 3.46m whilst U11 brother Dexta also set a new PB in the Long Jump with 2.99m, up from 2.83m on the only occasion he has done the event before.
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Vernons 5K Summer Series
Joe Monk is running very well at the moment and has set a number of new PB’s during the course of the season on the Track and on the Road. His latest outing came in the last of the Vernon 5k Series which he won commenting “It was a good race, I knew that the first mile was quite hilly so I decided to attack it hard and create a good gap. It managed to work and came away with a decent time and feeling very strong and controlled”. Unfortunately, we still have not been able to access any results for this Race.
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Pendleton Fell Race – August 27th
One hundred and sixteen runners in this Fell Race on Bank Holiday weekend with two Blackburn Harriers – Shaun Livesey and Andy Heys contesting for the Harriers.
The Race which was was won by Chris Houldsworth in a time of 36.29 saw Shaun Livesey come home in 12th spot and 3rd V40 with a time of 41.29 and commented after the race that he “Had a little trot over to the other side of the hill for this short sharp fell race. Haven’t ran on the fells for a while and it showed. I ran the hills well and stayed strong but I cannot allow myself to run fast downhill. I took it even easier when a fellow runner fell really hard on some large boulders, it made me wince. Turns out he was ok. Lost a few places coming down but gained 2 when we hit the runnable stuff near the end. Good little race l. Well done to all that ran and to all that contributed to the organisation”.
In 35th place came Andy Heys who is enjoying running on the Fells, with a time of 47.02 told the Club afterwards that it was “A tough little fell race with surprisingly difficult underfoot conditions. Went out a little too fast from the start and paid for it about two-thirds up the initial long ascent. Managed to recover up the second main ascent and pushed hard on the descent back in to Pendleton picking off four runners on the way down”.
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