Blackburn Harriers Junior athletes did themselves proud yesterday in pretty awful conditions at Wilson Playing Fields, competing in the second fixture in this years Mid Lancs Cross Country League. Incessant rain for the whole morning then changed into sunshine in the afternoon, but too late to make any impact on the growing amount of mud.
A big well done to the the three debutants in the U11 Boys race who combined to make sure they had a team counting on the day. Ansh Nama – a member of the Club’s Sportshall Group finished 28th (8.14) out of the 42 runners involved and was backed up well by Oscar Haworth in 30th place (8.20) and Anay Nama – like his brother, a member of the Club’s Sportshall Group in 41st (9.29). Just one U11 Girl out on the day – Charlotte Smith – who had a very good run placing 10th overall and running a time of 7.46 which was a massive improvement over her run at the first Mid Lancs fixture ealier in the month.
Ansh Nama (259)
Oscar Haworth (256)
Anay Nama
The U13 Girls team were high on confidence after winning the Team at the first fixture at Townley Hall and were tring to emulate that result again; And emulate it they did with another team win from Blackpool in 2nd position. Agatha Taylor was once again, the first Harrier home in 3rd place (8.54) with Hannah Davies just one place behind in 4th (9.02), Emma Robertshaw ran 9.28 in 12th place backed up by Tamzin Osborne 21st spot (10.11) for an all round excellent performance by the girls in taking the second win in a row.
Agatha Taylor (283)
Hannah Davies
Emma Robertshaw
Tamzin Osborne
Our U13 Boys team followed the example set by the Girls by also winning the team event on the day from Chorley A&T in 2nd spot. Sam Aspey and Theo Robinson set off in a determined mood to take the race to the rest of the field right from the start, which they held brilliantly to take 1st and 2nd places respectively with times of 10.41 and 10.43, Southport’s William Delamare in 3rd (10.47). Matthew Haxton had a very good run too, taking 9th spot in 11.34 to be the third counter and securing the team win, backed up by Liam Benninson in 12th place (11.54). Good runs too came from George Camara in 18th spot (12.18) with Callum Singleton just one place behind in 19th (12.24), new member Alex Rothwell on his debut at cross country raceing, in 22nd position running 12.45. George Holman had another solid run (12.48) in 24th place, followed by Charlie Haworth (13.04) in 26th and Loucas Lancashire in 30th (13.20)
Sam Aspey (265) – Theo Robinson (277)
Matthew Haxton
Liam Benninson (267)
George Camara (270)
Callum Singleton (279)
Alex Rothwell (2366)
George Holman
Charlie Haworth
Loucas Lancashire
The Harriers U15 Girls had to settle for 2nd position in the team race behind Lancaster with Preston in 3rd. Isabella Pacelli had a strong run in 11th place running 13.27 as did Imogen Robinson in 12th spot (13.33) with Isabela Thompson in 16th (14.08) and Isabelle Hartley 29th (17.51).
Isabella Pacelli
Imogen Robinson (302)
Isabela Thompson (304)
Eight teams contested the U15 Boys race which was won by Preston, Blackburn Harriers coming home in 5th place. Daniel Smith led the team as he placed 6th in a time of 14.12 and backed up by Ben Stratton in 17th spot (15.18), Matthew Smith in 19th (15.42) and Callum Osborne in 41st position (18.47).
Daniel Smith
Ben Stratton (292)
Matthew Smith (291)
Callum Osborne (288)
U17 Women and U15 Boys run in the same race which saw our ur U17 Women make it the 3rd team win of the day with the team being headed by race winner Isabel Holt who led from the off and ran 14.27 with Abigail Stratton in 3rd spot (15.18) and Keira Haxton in 5th (16.36) which gave us all three counters home in the first five positions. Solid runs through the mud too for Eleanor Allsop along with Leah Hoole in 17th (19.40), Kiera Booth (20th) in 19.47 and Eva Knowles in 21st (20.16).
U17 Women and U15 Boys are off
Isabel Holt (323)
Abigail; Stratton (329 – next to 1012)
Keira Haxton (322)
Eleanor Allsop
Leah Hoole (324)
Kiera Booth (317)
Eva Knowles
The Harriers fourth team win of the day and 3rd Individual win came from the U17 Men’s team comprising David Holman – Hayden Mercer – Jack Paget-Fowler – Dexta Thompson – Codie Dewhurst – Umair Rafiq. David led from the off, making his intentions clear, stayong in front the whole of the race to take the win in 20.28, nine seconds clear of Lancaster’s Fabian Schiller and 22 seconds clear of Kendals James Bowen in 3rd spot. Hayden was our 2nd counter as he came across the finish line in 9th place backed up by a very strong run from Jack in 11th spot (22.22) to complete the team counters. Next home was Dexta in 15th running 22.44 with Codie in 19th (23.55) and Umair in 22nd (24.56).
David Holman (308) leading from the off
David Holman (308)
Hayden Mercer
Jack Paget-Fowler
Dexta Thompson
Codie Dewhurst (307)
Umair Rafiq
Who made everyone laugh?
Unusually, our Senior Women’s and Men’s representatives were significantly down in numbers with just four finishers in the Women’s race and three in the Men’s Race. Eleesha Charnley – 6th in the U20 Race – had the highest finish as she came 12th out of the one hundred and thirty three strong field in a time of 25.50 followed by Lindsay Davies in 52nd spot (30.21), Jan Buckingham (81st) with a time of 33.35 and Ella Hardman (U20) in 116th place (40.06) – the team placing 13th out of the 29 teams competing overall. Highest placed finisher in the Men’s race was Marc Hartley running 33.53 in 22nd spot – the field totaling 224 runners. Behind Marc came Matt Nuttall (3rd V50) in 29th position with a time of 34.32 and Allan Hartley (163rd) in 43.39.
Eleesha Charnley
Lindsay Davies
Jan Buckingham
Ella Hardman (340)
Marc Hartley (202)
Matt Nuttall (213)
Allan Hartley (201)
⇓
Calvin Ferguson
