Last weekend turned out to be a remarkable one for Blackburn Harriers. It was a weekend marked by the winning of the UKYDL Upper Age Group Match at Carlisle on Saturday and the UKYDL Lower Age Group Match at Blackpool on Sunday. These two victories mean that both teams went through the whole of the season undefeated, becoming Champions in both Divisions. The Harriers Senior Team also went through the season undefeated in winning the Northern League West Premier Division title too.
This is quite an achievement and is testimony to the committment and enthusiasm of our Athletes, Team Managers (Danny Teare, Chris Thompson, Nicola Thompson), Coaches and Officials who have excelled themselves in what has been a difficult season for everyone, having to deal with Covid and the consequences stemming from that for everyone. There has been such a lot to be involved in and report on and it isn’t possible to do a complete breakdown of the results as we would normally do for the website other than to give a brief view of what happened over the two days.
Officiating in Long Jump, Javelin and Track Races – a big thank you to all of them.
Ten Matches, Ten Wins, Three Division Titles.
On Saturday September 4th, the Harriers travelled up to Carlisle, the home of Border Harriers for the second time this year, looking to make it a clean sweep of wins in the Division for the year. Having won the first fixture at Lancaster on May 30th followed by wins at Blackpool (June 27th) and Blackburn (July 25th), the confidence was high, reflected in another comprehensive winning performance.
Back Row (L-R) – Kyle Mashiter – Ben Makin – Benjamin Whittaker – Matt Ramsden – Caludio Enofomi – Grace Bontoft – Codie Dewhurst – Samuel Mutombo – Jack Paget-Fowler – Stuart Yates – Hayden Mercer – Ben Boocock
Front Row – (L-R) – Kate Cookson – Eva Knowles – Keira Haxton – Poppy Mae Preece – Kiera Booth – Eleesha Charnley – Amy Davies – Abbey Riley
Grace Bontoft had a stand out day adding half a metre to her previous best in the U17 Shot Putt, placing 2nd with 8.16m and then won the Hammer adding another half metre there too to set a new best distance of 45.43m. U20 Matthew Heywood won his Hammer with 48.29m, won his Javelin with 24.39m and the Discus with 25.02m. Cobi Read in just his second competitive fixture for the Club set a new personal best in the U17 Discus (1.5kg) with 24.37 in 3rd spot and made it a double with a new PB in the Shot Putt (5kg) with a throw of 10.26m. Charlotte Clapham added over six mettres to her previous best in the U17 Hammer with a throw of 23.43m with U20 Benjamin Whittaker in his first throw with the 800g Javelin setting a mark for himself with 34.24m.
Overall the Team posted forty three wins on the day and amongst them were new personal bests also for Poppy Preece in the U20 Pole Vault, clearing 2.40m, U17 Keira Haxton clocking 47.4 in the 300m, U17 Jack Paget-Fowler knocking three seconds off to set a new PB of 2.25.5, the U20M 4 x 100m Team who clocked 45.5 and Samuel Mutombo (U17) who leapt out to 12.50m in winning the Triple Jump.
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On to Sunday and it was the UKYDL Lower Age Group Match at Stanley Park in Blackpool which was the third and final Match this year, the first two having been cancelled. The Harriers won the first Match at Carlisle on June 5th by just 24 points from Blackpool in 2nd place. The second Match at Blackburn resulted in another win for the Club and this time by just over a 100 points from Blackpool in 2nd spot. Sundays final Match saw the Club emerge as winners again, by well over a 100 points from Blackpool in 2nd.
Back Row (L-R) – Faith Gillibrand – Imogen Robinson – Isabelle Hartley – Kady Thompson – Oliver Gill – Harry Pilkington – Jacob Fisher – Daniel Nuttall – Matthew Smith – Aidan Downes – Daniel Smith
Front Row (L-R) – Isabella Thompson – Leila Pilkington – Hannah Davies – Agatha Taylor – Charlotte Robertshaw – Tamzin Osborne – Emma Robertshaw
U15 Daniel Nuttall had a really good day going sub 25 seconds for the first time in winning the 200m in a new PB time of 24.8, won the 100m in 12.1 and then added half a metre to his Long Jump best to win that with a new PB of 5.25m. U15 Harrison Allcock also set a new PB in the Long Jump of 4.90m, a six cm improvement. Alongside forty one wins and 21 2nd places, there were good performances leading to new personal bests for U13 Luke Watson in the 75m (10.4), U15 U15 Harrison James setting a mark for himself in the 300m winning with 41.6 alongside U15 Aidan Downes knocking a second and a half of his best to set a new PB of 42.0.
U15 Daniel Smith knocked over a second off his 800m personal best with a 2.15.8 clocking in 2nd place followed by a new best in the High Jump by 5cms as he won with a 1.60m clearance; And there was a new PB of 1.20m for U13 Tamzin Osborne in the High Jump too. U13’s Luke Watson and Theo Robinson also set new Long Jump PB’s with 3.93m and 3.87m respectively. More new personal bests for U13 Leila Shorrock with 5.28m in the Shot Putt, U15 Jacob Fisher in the Discus with 22.00m, U15 Kady Thompson in the Discus with 18.64m and U15 Findlay Carroll in the Javelin with a throw of 19.70m. One of the biggest new PB’s of the day went to U13 Robert Bargh in winning the Javelin (28.69m) an improvement by some four metres. U13 George Camara who won the 150m, HJ and 75m Hurdles – another highlight performance on the day – is having a very good first season in Track & Field and finishes the season ranked 3rd nationally in the 75m Hurdles (12.56).
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