Blackburn Harriers U13 and U15’s finished the YDL season in second place to the Isle of Man which means that the Club has secured promotion to Division One in 2016 – a great effort on everyone’s part, particularly in the last fixture where the Team was short because of holidays. But other athletes rowed in to help out wherever they could which was a great display of team spirit.
A mention here and a huge thank you to the Officials who turn out at every fixture during the summer in what is often a thankless task and with out them, there wouldn’t be any competition. The Club is always looking to involve parents in Officiating and Coaching. If anyone wishes to get involved just contact the Club secretary at [email protected].
Full Results HERE
Even though a number of athletes were missing because of the holidays, the Team performance on the day was very good with 24 new PB’s and 3 equal PB’s. Nick Massey and Josh Van der Linde equaled their personal bests in the 100m with 12.0 and 13.5 respectively and Sam Farnworth equaled his PB in the U13 100m with 13.8 and set a new one in the 200m (2nd) with 28.7. Solomon Brown set his new PB in the 80m Hurdles with a time of 15.5. In the Throws Anthony Kent set new personal bests in the Hammer (1st) with 35.07m and in the Discus (1st) with 31.54m. Lucas Davies followed suit winning the ‘B’ Discus with 25.78m.
Other athletes setting new personal bests were U15 Reuben Turner in the High Jump (4th) with 1.50m – U15 Josh Van Der Linde in the Pole Vault (2nd) 2.40m – U13 Luis Billington in 100m (4th) 15.3 – U13 Harry Jackson finished 4th in the 200m (34.4) & 2nd in the 75m Hurdles with 15.5 – U13 Daniel Brown 1st in the 1500m ‘B’ with 5.24.7. Carrying on with the U13 Boys setting new PB’s were George Whittaker in the Javelin with 18.15m – Keiran Carroll in the Shot Putt (3rd) with 6.25m and Jonah Turner in the High Jump 2nd with 1.20m.
Among the Girls setting new PB’s were U15 Chloe Bleeks in the 200m (4th) with 28.9 and Hannah Cookson also in the 200m with 27.7. Hannah then set a new PB in the Long Jump (5th) with 4.27m. Charlotte Williams (U15) set a new PB in the Discus (1st) with 26.55m and also won the Hammer (38.03m) and the ‘B’ Shot Putt with 9.15m which was also a new personal best. Eloise Littlefair didn’t set PB’s but importantly won all of her events which included the ‘B’ Hammer (29.87m) the ‘B’ Discus with 21.48m and ‘A’ Shot Putt (10.06m).
In the U13’s there were PB’s for Olivia Blow (1st) in the 75m with 11.1 and the 150m (4th) with 21.8. Emily Raine kept the PB’s coming with a 3rd in the 75m ‘A’ (10.4) followed by Myah Booth who set PB’s in the 70m Hurdles (1st) in 12.7 and 3rd spot in the Javelin with 16.93m.
Boys Team Manager – John Cookson – was very pleased with the squad and the results over the season. “Nick Massey as captain lead the small but effective U15 boys team by example with a clean sweep of victories in the 80m hurdles. The team performed well in sprints, hurdles and jumps, just lacking strength in depth in the middle distance events. There were too many stand out individual performances to list, however particular credit must go to the lead throwers of Anthony Kent and Lucas Davies who consistently produced top 2 placings. Over the course of the 4 fixtures the U15 boys team collectively amassed 15 A string first places and 6 B string firsts.
The U13 Boys Squad also performed really well. Sam Farnworth captained the under U13 boys team and battled hard as the lead sprinter in all 4 fixtures. In contrast to the U15’s, the U13’s had a plentiful roster of athletes to choose from which meant that even with the rotation of athletes we regularly filled all A and B strings as well as the non-scoring events. The under 13’s contributed 5 A string firsts and 4 B string victories over the 4 events. Not as impressive as the U15’s but with 6 A string second places and 7 B string seconds, with more training and development the best is perhaps yet to come.
Overall the combined efforts of the boys and girls teams provided some very consistent performances with the Harriers team placing second in fixtures 1, 2 and 3 with a 3rd place finish (just 1 point off second place) in the final fixture. Well done to all athletes, not just those that were victorious, but also those who displayed their versatility and flexibility by selflessly putting themselves forward for events that fell outside of their comfort zones. As well as the athletes, thanks also goes out to the parents and club officials for making this years YDL a success and congratulations to everyone on winning promotion”.
Mick Angland was the Team Manager for the U13 and U15 Girls and commented on the season that
“It’s great that the team achieved promotion to the next division but it’s more pleasing for me to see the athletes developing and enjoying the competition. Every single athlete that competed during the season has contributed to the team success. There have been a few tears along the way (cheer up John!) however on the whole, smiles all round.
Thanks to the officials who gave up their own time to help out and to ‘The Stalwart’ George Davies who turned out for every fixture in order to keep everyone in check, and take the odd photo.
Lastly, thanks to the coaches who work week in, week out, to provide a platform for the athletes to show off their talents in competition. Good luck to the U15s who are moving up to U17 next year.”
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