The first Sale Winter Series meeting Indoors at Sportcity took place on Sunday December 4th which included quite a number of Blackburn Harriers athletes – fifteeen in all – competing in their first Indoor outing of the season. (RESULTS)

Starting off in the 60m Sprint which saw eleven Harriers take part, U17 Charlie Unsworth made a cracking start to his season and the day by winning his Heat in 7.22 and a new PB by nearly three tenths – Jacob Fisher in the same Heat clocking 7.71 in 4th spot. First year U17 Daniel Nuttall made it two wins for the Club as he won the next Heat in 7.53. The following Heat contained threee Blackburn Harriers sprinters who took first, second and third places and all running the distance for the first time – Henry Harwood making it a hat-trick of Club wins in running 7.64, Oliver Palk came 2nd in a time of 7.89 with team mate James Tierney in 3rd clocking 8.08. Millee Schofield who is bottom of age U17 and Kara Dacosta ran in the same Heat with Millee running 8.10 in 4th and Kara posting a new PB of 8.18 in 5th place – an improvement of three tenths. Another two debutants over 60m and first year U17’s – Imogen Crooks placed 3rd in their Heat in a time of 8.66 with Alisha Lehner in 4th clocking 8.81. U20 Samuel Mutombo was the final Harrier racing over 60m coming home in 4th position with his time of 7.73.

(Millee Schofield & Kara Dacosta 60m Race Video) — (Daniel Nuttall 60m Race Video)

Thanks to Lee Schofield for the photos and Videos

Moving on to the 300m and it was another debut for U17 Oliver Palk as he clocked 40.16 in 3rd with Daniel Nuttall running 40.17 in 4th. Charlie Unsworth made it a win double for himself in a debut winning run in his 300m Heat with a time of 37.77 whilst Henry Harwood also took on the distance for the first time, placing 3rd in 41.71. James Tierney was another debutant over 300m as he ran 42.69 in his Heat (4th). Zoe Green took on the 300 and 600m races finishing 4th in the 300m with a time of 50.74 and 7th in the 600m clocking 2.02.27. Millee Schofield kocked over half a second off her 300m best time when she won her Heat in a new PB time of 43.93 followed by Imogen Crooks in her Heat and making her debut over 300m Indoors running 45.22 in 2nd spot alongside team mate Alisha Lehner in 3rd with a time of 46.94.

L-R Charlie Unsworth – James Tierney – Henry Harwood – Oliver Palk – Daniel Nuttall – Imogen Crooks – Alisha Lehner – Millee Schofield – Kara Dacosta

Millee, Alishsa and Imogen ‘getting ready’.

First year U20 Thomas Monks ran his first 600m race and clocked 1.27.10 in 2nd place – Hayden Mercer and Codie Dewhurst both ran in the same 600m Heat but didn’t get a time because of fault in the electronic timing – (RACE VIDEO). Another couple of debuts and this time for Kara Dacosta in the 60mHurdles winning her Heat in 9.35 with Alisha Lehner clocking 10.10 (4th). Rounding off the day with the High Jump, Kara posted her second win of the day heading the field of 9 with a clearance of 1.55m whilst Codie Dewhurst cleared the same height of 1.55m in 9th place in his Pool.

Thanks to Sabrina Dewhurst for Photo and Video

Codie Dewhurst

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What a difference a year makes. In the weather! 2021 at Marl Pits was a pretty horrendous day, endured being the only way to describe the relentless rain, sleet and cold. Fast forward 12 months and Marl Pits greeted the athletes with the usual copious amounts of mud, but, with blue sky, little wind and a pretty good day. The fixture was the final one in this years Red Rose League competition which decided the outcome of Individual and Team prizes.

(MARL PITS PROVISIONAL RESULTS) — (SERIES PROVISIONAL RESULTS)

Blackburn Harriers didn’t have a lot of athletes out on the day but got off to a good start with Theo Addy in the U11 Boys race who was running just his second race, his first seeing him finish 17th at Burnley. Theo was determined to improve on that and so he did with an 11th placed finish in a time of 8.30 – the same time given also to 10th placed Mason Fletcher form Bolton. Theo Robinson hadn’t long recovered from Covid, however, that didn’t stop him pulling off a win in the U13 Boys race. Coming round on the 2nd lap of the field before going up the slope, Theo just edged into first place and never looked back, taking the win in a time of 10.30, sone 17 seconds in front of 2nd placed Harry Yates from Horwich. Liam Bennison who didn’t race on the day, having completed his three qualifying races took 4th spot overall in the U13 Boys Series.

Theo Addy (1174)

Theo Robinson (112)

Lyra Krige and Charlotte Rothwell ran in the U13 Girls race which saw Lyra continue to improve as she came home in 16th place running 12.38 in only her second race of the year. Team mate Charlotte Rothwell was running her third race of the cross country season having placed 31st and 35th at her previous Red Rose fixtures. Charlotte came home in 29th spot running 13.59. Jack Wood is in his first competitive year with the Club and Marl Pits was his fourth race in the current cross country season having finished 15th in the Mid Lancs at Witton Park, 4th in the Red Rose at Todmorden and 6th at the Red Rose at Sefton Park. At Marl Pits Jack went one better finishing 3rd on the day (18.10) and 4th overall for the Series. Team mate Alex Rothwell came home in 7th place (19.11) and 8th overall in the Series having placed 6th, 10th, 10th and 7th in each of the four races. Just one athlete in the U15 Girls race – Imogen Robinson – who came home in a time of 23.41 (14th).

Lyra Krige (1275)

Charlotte Rothwell

Jack Wood

Alex Rothwell

Imogen Robinson (149)

Daniel Smith, Jack Lamb and Jack Paget-Fowler combined to take the team win in the U17 Men’s race with Daniel finishing in 2nd spot (20.17), Jack Lamb (5th) in 21.43 and Jack paget-Fowler (22.36) coming across the finish line in 6th. Overall in the Series Daniel finished in 2nd place behind Rossendale’s Joe Ormerod and Jack Lamb placed 5th.

They’re off

Daniel Smith

Jack Lamb

Jack Paget-Fowler

3rd place for the Senior Men on the day and 2nd place overall in the Series behind winners Rossendale. U20 Sam Hodkinson had a good run to be the first counter for the team, crossing the finish line in 8th place (34.08) with team mates Stephen Walter in 14th (35.11), V50 Matt Nuttall in 17th spot running 35.28, V55 David Almond in a time of 38.47 (38th), Danny Maynard finishing in 43rd (39.29) and V50 Anton Krige in 66th with a time of 42.04. Only one runner for the Club in the Senior Women’s race – Lindsay Davies – finishing 31st in 28.48. Overall in the Series there were two top individual finishes in the Senior Men  – Chris Davies in 8th and Sam Hodkinson (10th). Chris Davies won the V45 category – Matt Nuttall won the V50 category and David Almond came 2nd in the V55 category. Sam Hodkinson was the overall 3rd U20 Man, Amy Davies won the U20 Women’s and was 4th overall in the Senior Women’s – Lindsay Davies was 4th V50.

Sam Hodkinson

Stephen Walter

Matt Nuttall

David Almond

Danny Maynard

Anton Krige (1252)

Lindsay Davies (167)

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One day later and another race, this time the Blackburn 10k orgainsed by RunThrough which had just under 900 runners completing the race – starting at the football ground of Blackburn Rovers, going through the centre of Blackburn and then returing to finish alongside the pitch. (RESULTS).

Blackurn Rovers Football Ground – Ewood Park

Blackburn Harriers Dan Grundy at the Blackburn 10k doing the mass warm up and providing sports massage.

The race was won by Blackpool’s Marco Parolin (32.48) with Blackburn Road Runners duo Alex Curran in 2nd (33.56) and David Birtwistle in 3rd (33.59). First Harrier home was V45 Chris Davies in 5th place running 35.02 and he was followed by U20 Eleesha Charnley bagging a top 20 finish with a time of 37.10 to win the Women’s Race. The race was Eleesha’s third over the distance – her first one in 2020 and her second in October 2022 – and was a new PB by just over a minute which moves her to number 13 in th National Rankings. Next home for the Club was another U20 Amy Davies who was running her 4th 10k race having run one in each of the years 2020, 2021 and this her second in 2022 – and she made it count – crossing the finishing line in a new PB time of 39.05, five minutes and 14 seconds faster than her 2021 personal best time of 44.19 and 3rd female on the day. Rachael Gavin (V35) was next home for the Club in 106th place running 42.54 followed home by V50 Lindsay Davies in 139th in a time of 45.10 and 1st V50 woman. U20 Hollie Cubbon was just seconds outsider her personal best when she ran 46.57 – missing a new best time by just 8 seconds – as she crossed the line in 210th spot. Great to see Peter Lynch out running in the race as a V70 and finishing with a time of 64.09 (713th).

L-R  Amy Davies (3rd Female)  – Eleesha Charnley (1st female) – Mayor of Blackburn Councillor Suleman Khonat – Belinda Houghton (2nd Female)

Amy Davies

Rachael Gavin

Lindsay Davies

Hollie Cubbon

Peter Lynch

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Blackburn Harriers Sportshall Squad did themselves proud at the weekend, winning the Lancashire Sportshall League for the second year in a row. Team Manager Grace Bontoft was full of praise when she gave “Congratulations to all Sportshall athletes this year. A massive 25 medals won overall with 8 gold, 7 silver and 9 bronze. And to top it off, we are also overall League winners. I am soooo proud of all of you and you should all be sooo proud of yourselves. Well done!!!“

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Other recent results saw V50 Nick Gaskell out again on – Sunday November 27th – and this time in the Wilmslow 10k – (RESULTS) – running 34.00 in 56th and 1st V50 in the race. Josh Holgate and Danny Maynard ran the Annual David Staff Memorial Race (Information about David). Josh had a strong run to finish in 2nd spot (28.28) behind the winner – Joe Dale from Victoria Park Harriers (28.12). Danny came home in 11th position running 33.29 – 84 runners finishing the race. (RESULTS)

Josh Holgate

Danny Maynard

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