World Track & Field Championships – Doha
Holly Bradshaw put on a great performance at the World Championships to finish 4th overall in a field featuring the best Pole Vaulters from all around the world. She had a flawless qualification round clearing the automatic qualification height of 4.60m at the first attempt. Seventeen qualified for the Final over that height which was quite unusual and was testimony to quality of all of those assembled for the Championships.
In the Final, the opening height was set at 4.50m which Holly cleared first time, then jumped to 4.70m which she also cleared first time before moving the bar up to 4.80m. She had a first jump failure but corrected that in her second attempt to clear and over into the Bronze Medal position at that stage. Holly then passed after two attempts at 4.85m and had one go at 4.90m. Holly’s season has got better and better with consisting jumping and culminating in the her seasons best performance at the Championships.
Holly’s Coach – Scott Simpson – tweeted after the Finals “What can I say?! It was a pleasure and privilege to have coached Holly in the build up to and during the greatest women’s pole vault competition of all time! 4.80m for 4th place at the World Champs – she gave it absolutely everything and I’m incredibly proud”
Jess Judd has had a great year in 2019 culminating in qualifying for the 5000m at the World Championships after finishing 2nd in the British Championships, running the qualifying standard at the Diamond League Anniversary Games in July and winning the Goild Medal in the World University Championships in the 5000m also in July.
The World Chamnpionship Heats were full of world class 5000m athletes which can be evidenced by the times in the Heats which saw sixteen athletes run times faster than Jess’s personal best of 15.16.47. As always, Jess gave everything she had in her Heat, clocking 15.51.48 and can be immensely proud of her achievements throughout the year. (RESULTS)
Athletics Weekly Video Interview with Jess
Jess Qualifying at British Championships
↓
Mid Lancs Cross Country League – September 28th
The first fixture in this years Mid Lancs Cross Country League at Ulverston where thankfully the weather eased for the duration of the event and conditions were enjoyable for spectators and athletes.
Junior Photos Courtesy of David Wood
Senior Photos Courtesy of Richard Marchant
It was a good start for the Harriers as they kicked of with a Team Win in the Senior Men, 2nd in the Senior Women, 1st in the U11 Boys and 2nd in the U15 Boys.
In the Junior races Hannah Davies ran a very mature race to take 4th place (9.01), getting her pacing right from start to finish with cross country debutant Alexa Hunt running 12.24 in 43rd place. In the U11 Boys we had the run of the day as Sam Aspey very intelligently stuck with the leader and delivered a great sprint finish to take the win in a time of 7.34, just one second in front of the 2nd placed runner and backed up brilliantly by Theo Robinson in 4th (8.05) and Liam Bennison 12th (8.28) to take the Team Win. Charlie Haworth was next home for the Harriers in 23rd spot clocking 8.53 followed home by Jack Carrington in a time of 9.15 (29th), Alexander Brien in 31st (9.18), Felix Thompson (35th) running 9.31, Daniel Bretherton in 45th (9.50), George Holman, one second behind (9.51) in 46th spot and Tom Hunt another young cross country debutant for the Club in 56th position (11.44).
Hannah Davies (613)
Alexa Hunt (325)
Sam Aspey (684)
Theo Robinson
Liam Bennison (674)
Charlie haworth (677)
Jack Carrington (975) with Alexander Brien just behind
Felix Thomspon (679)
Tom Hunt (324)
The U13 Girls came home as 7th team on the day with Amelia Burton the first Harrier across the line in 22nd place out of 57 girls entered with a time of 11.13 and supported by Eve Coulson in 27th place (11.26), Imogen Robinson in 33rd running 11.40 and Isabelle Hartley (51st with a time of 13.19.
Amelia Burton (626)
Eve Coulson (619)
Imogen Robinson (617)
Isabelle hartley (625)
Our U13 Boys as a team performed well, all placing in the top half, with lads coming back from injury and the team finishing 4th only 11 points of 2nd so plenty to aim for in the rest of the season. First across the line for the Club came Daniel Smith in 14th (10.43) with just a second separating him from Jonathan Brindle in 15th (10.44) followed by Oliver Gill in 22nd clocking 11.27, Matthew Smith in 26th with a time of 11.46, and Isaac Smith in 51st (15.53).
Daniel Smith (702)
Jonathan Brindle (699)
Oliver Gill (697)
Matthew Smith (691)
Isaac Snith (690)
In the U15 Girls Keira Haxton was our best placed athlete in 12th, with signs also that all the girls are improving as they make the step up from U13’s to the U15 age group category.
L-R Keira Booth – Hollie Cubbon – Eva Knowles – Keira Haxton – Leah Hoole – Caroline Woodworth
Keira Haxton (631)
Caroline Woodworth (633)
Keira Booth (629)
Eva Knowles (630)
Leah Hoole (634)
Hollie Cubbon (639)
The Harriers U15 Boys started off the season well placing 2nd team behind a Kendal-Helm Composite team which saw a strong run from David Holman to lead the team home, clocking a time of 16.15 in 7th and backed up by Kyle Taylor-Pomfret in 11th spot (16.38) and good packing by four other Harriers which had Jack Paget-Taylor in 17th (16.59), Sebastian Burton 18th in 17.00, cross country debutant Jake O’Toole in 19th place (17.12) and Codie Dewhurst 20th in a time of 17.13.
David Holman (719)
Jack paget-Fowler (712)
Sebastian Burton (713)
Jake O’Toole (326)
Codie Dewhurst (704)
There was a fine run from Eleesha Charnley in the U17 Women’s race for 2nd spot with Amy Davies 6th gradually coming back from injury, whilst in the U17 Men’s race, the Club had just one runner – Sam Hodkinson who fought strongly for a podium finish, placing 3rd after a close battle with the 2nd placed athlete from Leven Valley.
Eleesha Charnely (642) – Amy Davies (643)
Sam Hodkinson
The Senior Women’s race saw Joanne Nelson have a another cracking run to finish 2nd overall (25.38) and 1st V45 behind race winner Emily Japp (24.56). Annabel Ralph also had a fine run in 4th spot (26.54) and with Lindsay Davies in 35th place (31.07) this meant that they finished 2nd in the Team race behind Kendal who came 1st, but with only 7 points between the two teams. Great to see V45 Judith Robinson making her debut in cross country for the Club running a time of 35.16 in 95th place followed by V45 sister Helen Dawson-Smith in 103rd with a time of 35.59 and V45 Nikki Hartley in a time of 36.39 (111th).
Joanne Nelson
Annabel Ralph (652)
Lindsay Davies (666)
Judith Robinson (317)
Helen Dawson-Smith
Nikki Hartley
The Senior Men had three men home in the first 12 places which set them up for the Team win with 53 points from Wesham in 2nd place (60 points) and Kendal in 3rd (95 points). Good running from Karl Billington saw him lead the Harriers home to victory as he clocked 33.19 in 5th with another fine run from V40 Chris Davies in 7th (33.49) which saw him take the V40 first place too.
Karl Billington (746)
Chris Davies (761)
Tom Blaney was next across the finish line for the Harriers in 12th spot (34.30) and backed up by Tom Marchant in 18th with a time of 35.15, John Horrocks in 23rd spot out of a field 226 clocking 36.02, Mark Chippendale in 35th (37.15) and 2nd V50 and Allan Hartley in 216th (55.14).
Tom Blaney (750) 
Tom Marchant (733)
Mark Chippendale (210)
Allan Hartley (764)
↓
Berlin Marathon – Sunday September 29th
Calum Holmes entred the Berlin Marathon – a race won in a time of 2hr 01.49 – just two seconds outside of the world record and there can be no better experience for Club runners than saying you ran in the same race! Calum went into the race not having done as much training as he would have liked and with a Marathon personal best time of 2hr 48.48 set at the Paris Marathon in 2018. In Berlin he chopped over half a minute off that time to set a new PB of 2hr 47.14 and as a bonus, finished the race ranked 8th U23 for the Marathon (Rankings).
Afterwards, Calum spoke to the Harriers bwefore going off to Wrexham to start life as a university student and told us “I’m really chuffed about my time a personal best in a race I haven’t even trained for with my long runs only up to 8 miles most days and two track sessions a week, I had a great start I clocked 1.54 at 30k but straight away I suffered from massive cramps, both feet was sore and on fire I knew my race was going to be the end and I would never make it I got slower and slower then at 40k I knew I’m almost there I can do this, this was the hardest part of the race to finish after I hobbled towards the finish I managed to scrape a PB, I’m very delighted with my performance, it wasn’t expected and willing to improve and work really hard for our club in xc.”
Calum Holmes
A week before the Marathon – September 22nd – Calum ran at the Burnley Fire 10k finishing 2nd in 36.39 behind the winner Adrian Cheetham in 36.30.
Calum Holmes (37)
↓
Arnold Sneddon Open Medal Meeting – Wigan September 15th
Ben Branton, Nicky Saunders, Grace Bontoft and Matt Heywood all competed at the annual Arnold Sneddon Meeting at the weekend in Wigan.
U15 Nicky finished 2nd out of 11 in the Discus (1kg) with a throw of 30.54 adding to that a 3rd placed throw of 32.91m in the Hammer (3kg) and a 2nd placed distance of 21.28m in the Javelin. Matt (U17) – was just outside hi personal best in the Discus with a throw of 28.60m in 2nd spot, was the only U17 competitor in the Hammer (5kg) where he achieved a best distance of 49.84m and threw 22.41m in the Javelin (3rd). U15 Grace has been throwing consistently well and finished 4th in the Hammer (3kg) with a distance of 29.73m the day after she had thrown 30.79m at the Blackpool Open. U17 Ben took on the 100m and Long Jump – clocking 12.5 in 3rd polace int he 100m which was a tenth outside his personal best and later leapt out to 5.60m in the Long Jump in 4th spot.
↓
On the Fells
Calvin Ferguson ran in the Scafell Pike Fell Race on September 14th which was won by Lochaber’s John Yells in a time of 55.01. Calvin came home in 81st spot running a time of 1hr 27.20 and told the Club that it was “perfect conditions in Wasdale for this years race up England’s highest mountain. Felt a bit fitter than previous weeks but still a long way to go to regain my race fitness of last year. One of my quickest descent’s of Scafell though, even though I didn’t feel like I was going full tilt, so that was encouraging”.
One day later on Sunday September 15th, Calvin was out again, this time in the Lake District Mountain Trial and commenting that “this year Langdale played host to the Mountain Trial, a historic Lakeland fell race in which they do not give you the race map until you are a few minutes down the starting path and then you must navigate point to point around the course. I ran the short course for the 3rd consecutive year, running with former clubmate Helen Buchan. We finished 11th overall in the pairs section with a late nav error costing us a large portion of time towards the end, as well as 5 or 6 finishing places. Frustrating but a fantastic event and a brilliant day on the fells”.
↓
Carly Edwards and John Orrell were both out at the Great Westmoorland Trail Race on september 14th which featured 102 runners, the race being won by Antony Scott in 60.14. Carly had a fine run to come home in 19th place overall, clocking 65.12 and 3rd Woman on the day. John came home in a time of 71.01 in 38th place. (RESULTS).
After The Great Westmoorland Trail Race John was out again at Great Whernside 4 miles and 1558ft ascent. Just seventy six runners in this one, won by Whatfedales’ Harry Coates in 32.06. John finished in 54th spot clocking 51.18 and told us that “This is an out and back course, a long gradual climb with grass track, peat bogs and short sharp rocky sections. Topped out at 2310ft around the trig and back down as fast as my jelly legs would carry me! Picked up 2 places only to lose them again on the final run in. Must try harder!” (RESULTS)
↓
Utterley Butterley Fell Race – September 22nd
Annabel Ralph was out on the Fells again in a race won by Royton’s Rob James in 30.25. Annabel had a fine race, taking the Woman’s 1st Prize and coming home 12th overall in a time of 38.49 and after the race, told the Club that she was “Happy with the result as visability was poor it was a short race race over moorlands where I was able to use speed to my advantage, just need to work on my strength going uphill”.
Annabel Ralph
↓
Hurstwood Hills Trail Race – Tuesday September 17th
One hundred and forty eight runners in the final race of this Series with this one being won by Todmorden’s Andrew Worster in a time of 18.18.
Daniel Whittaker and Mark Wilkin both ran the race for the Harriers which saw Daniel come home in 20th spot with a time of 22.42 and Mark in 35th place (24.13)
Daniel Whittaker (58)
Mark Wilkin (56)
↓
And finally Blackburn Harriers Endurance Coach – Andrew Knowles – was out again in a triathlon on an awfully wet day in Kendal and doing very well to take a podium position – 3rd – in his Age Category 50 and 17TH overall from 157 competitors. His total time was 1hr,11minutes, 2 seconds and told us after the event that “the Sprint Triathlons are really full on, its full gas from the go, no time to find a rhythm, settle down etc its just push, push, push! I am happy that (at my age) I am still capable of, stringing the 3 sports, swim, bike and run together and finishing round the top 10% overall, the stars of the day were the marshals who braved the terrible weather”
