A great result for the Harriers with 22 athletes winning their events at the YDL Upper Age Group Northern West Division 2 fixture at Carlisle on Sunday June 2nd. Up against East Cheshire Harriers; West Cheshire Harriers; Border Harriers and Team North Cumbria the Club finished second to East Cheshire in the first fixture, but managed to turn the tables on Sunday at Carlisle by winning the fixture with East Cheshire in second place. With the third fixture of four due at Witton Park on June 30th and with just 5.5 points separating East Cheshire (1st) and Blackburn (2nd) at the top of the table, it promises to be a cracking day of competitive athletics.
Full Results HERE:
On the day, there some excellent and outstanding performances including in the sprints where U20 Paul Coffey, who is improving with each race ran a PB of 11.6sec and won the ‘B’ Race; U17 Jake Almond came 2nd in the 100m in 11.7 secs and then won the 200m Race in 23.8 secs. Connor Makin put together a really good set of results with 2nd in the 400m ‘A’ Race (54.1); 1st in the 110m Hurdles ‘A’ Race(19.4); 1st in the 400m Hurdles ‘A’ Race (60.3) and 1st in the ‘B’ High Jump with 1.60m.
U17 Ben Aspinall was another athlete with a series of good performances including a massive new PB of 12.60m in the Triple Jump to finish runner up; 2nd in the Long jump with 5.52m and 2nd in the High Jump clearing 1:60m the same as the event winner.
Robert Savage running 2nd Claim for Blackburn and a member of Rossendale Harriers made his debut with a first time ever 800m in 2:15) and then went on to win the 2000m Steeple Chase, knocking a massive 22 seconds off his PB in a time of 7:09.0. Latest debutant’s for the Club in this League were Corrie Shorrock and Macauley Scott. Corrie competed in the ‘A’ events for Discus 3rd (23.41m); Hammer 2nd (19.00m) and Shot Putt 3rd (9.14m). Macauley was 5th in the ‘A’ High Jump (1.75m) won with an exceptional jump by the winner of 1.93m and went on to win both the ‘A’ Long Jump with 5.76m and the ‘B’ Triple Jump with 11.01m.
Gareth Johnson took a 4th place in the U17 100m with 12.1sec and the ran a PB in the 200m in 25.3sec – a 2.3 sec improvement. Robert Wong (U17), back from football won the 800m in a photo finish (2:17.6) and Joseph Howe in his first 1500m race of the year came in 3rd (4:38.7).
In the Male Throws, U17 Nathan Billington came 2nd (35.48m); 3rd in the Hot Putt (8.45m) and 3rd in the Javelin (27.90m) and U17 Sam Charnley with a 3rd place (9.40m) in the Triple Jump, and a 3rd in the 400m (58.1) added more points to the team total.
Another athlete who is improving all the time – U17 Katie Buckingham had a good day with a 200m PB of 28.4 for 2nd place; won the 800m in 2:29.8 and also won the 300m Hurdles in 48.5. Bottom of age U17 Rhiannon Wickham did it again – after winning the 3000m at the first fixture, she backed that up with another win at Carlisle in the 3000m. Rachel Leech also had a really good day winning the 400m in 61.8sec; 3rd in the 200m (27.4sec) and 4th in the Javelin (14.80m).
Amongst the Women’s results were some really good performances including a new Club Record. In finishing 2nd in the U17 Women’s Discus, Rebecca Orrell threw 30.06m to break the existing Club Record which lifted her to 28th in the U17 National Rankings. She backed this performance up winning the U17 Hammer (35.64m) and then came 3rd in the Javelin (21.05m) which was another PB.
Polly Pearse, another bottom of age U17 won the 80m Hurdles in 13.2sec; won the Pole Vault with 2.10m and to make it a hat trick of wins, took 1st place in the High Jump 1.50m. Olivia Brookes also won the Long Jump (4.49m), was 2nd in the Triple Jump with 9.66m, 2nd in the High Jump with 1.45m and 2nd in the 100m (13.4sec). Debutant Natasha Moles won the ‘B’ High Jump (1.45m), took 3rd in the Triple Jump (9.13m). Jacinta Davison with a 3rd place in the 1500m (5:43.9); Hammer a 4th place (18.34m) and Shot Putt 3rd (8.86m) – Jane Saothong Javelin 3rd (10.43m), Long Jump 3rd (3.64m) and Shot Putt 4th (5.10m) – and Sophie Taylor 2nd in the Long Jump (4.47m), 2nd 100m Hurdles (18.1sec) and 3rd in the 200m (30.6sec) all contributed to the Teams winning points total.
Final memory of the day was in the last event, the 4 x 300m Womens Relay. After a storming opening leg by Katie Buckingham, we slipped a little on the 2nd leg and then Polly Pearse dragged it back on leg 3 to hand over to Phoebe Howe – coming off the top bend, Phoebe was neck and neck with East Cheshire, and with all her team mates screaming encouragement, she rocketed down the home straight to take the win for the Harriers.
Perfect end to a great day.
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Saturday June 1st saw the Club competing at Trafford against Team North Cumbria; Wigan & District Harriers; Trafford AC; West Cheshire AC and Wrexham AC in the Northern West Division 1 of the Youth Development League U13/U15 Age Group. Notable on the day were the number of athletes missing as a result of the holidays, the participation of a number of new athletes from Sportshall and the Team spirit that went right through the day. The Harriers finished 5th less than 30 points off 4th place on the day and with the next fixture at Blackburn, it is all to play for.
Full Results HERE:
Even with a depleted squad, the Harriers still managed to get wins in eleven events on the day and amongst them there were some cracking performances.
Liz Greenwood knocked a shade off her 1500m PB, winning the ‘A’ Race in 4:48.3 and in the process achieved the English Schools qualifying time – in the same Race where A and B runners ran together, Grace Handley sliced a huge six seconds off her 1500m best time to record 4:52.9 winning the ‘B’ Race and going really close to the qualifying time for English Schools.
U15 Connor Davison had a great day. He won the ‘A’ Discus (25.93m) a PB by 2.5 metres; the ‘A’ Hammer (24.08) and the Shot Putt (10.39m) another big PB by well over a metre.
Amongst our other winners were U15 Tom Harbour ‘B’ Shot Putt (6.93m) who then knocked 3 seconds off his 1500m PB for 4th place (4:44.4) and in a real team effort took on the 200m for the first time running a credible 27.3secs.
U15 Morgan Angland won the ‘A’ 75m Hurdles (12.4sec) and ‘A’ Long Jump with a big PB (4.62m) – Morgan also had a 2nd in the ‘A’ High Jump (1.35m). U15 Elizabeth Ashcroft won the ‘B’ 75m Hurdles (13.0sec) and backed that up with a PB of 4:23m for 4th place in the ‘B’ Long Jump and a 3rd in the ‘A’ Shot Putt (7.11m).
Cameron Massey continues to improve – in the U15 ‘A’ 100m he ran 12.8 secs for 5th place; finished 4th in the 80m Hurdles (13.6sec) and 4th in the Long Jump ‘A’ (4.68m). Huzaifa Hanif (U15) competed for the first time for the Club and did really well on his debut. In the ‘B’ 200m he came 4th (28.3sec); 300m ‘A’ Race 3rd (43.1sec) and 5th in the ‘A’ Javelin (18.31m). U13 Anthony Kent in the U13 Shot Putt came in 4th (6.55m).
There were a number of bottom of age U13 Sportshall athletes who moved up to competitive athletics in the League and did very well including young Kimberley Keller who competed in the 75m, 150m and Shot Putt and did really well. Jack Fairbanks ran 15.1sec in the U13 100m; 30.8sec in the ‘A’ 200m (4th) and 2nd in the ‘B’ Long Jump (3:53m). Solomon Brown showed real tenacity by taking on the U13 ‘A’ 800m finishing in 5th place (2:53.2), then the 75m Hurdles 4th in 16.2 secs and the ‘A’ High Jump 4th (1:20m). Liam Lang, another Sportshall athlete went in the ‘A’ Javelin (5th) 13.54m and ‘B’ High Jump (4th) 1:05m. William Fort also got stuck in with a 5th in the ‘A’ Long Jump (3.94m); ‘B’ 100m for 2nd (15.3 secs). Charlotte Williams ran 3:10.9 in the U13 800m ‘A’ Race Shot Putted 5.83m and High Jumped 1:20m for a 3rd place.
In the U15 Girls Eleanor Clegg was 6th in the ‘A’ 100m (13.9sec) and 6th in the ‘A’ 200m (29.5sec). Gabriella Martin took 4th place in the ‘B’ 100m (14.4sec). Next came PB’s for Charlotte Taylor in the U15 ‘B’ 800m (2nd) cutting over 2 seconds off at 2:42.0 and for Olivia Wilson in the ‘A’ 800m (3rd) knocking over 4 seconds off at 2:39.3. Good reward for the training they have been doing. Charlotte also ran the ‘B’ 200m (4th) in 28.4 sec. Olivia then tried her hand at Javelin (4th) 18.45m and a new PB by over a metre. Hannah Cookson in her first ever 1200m won the U13 ‘A’ Race in a time of 4:07.3 with a long run for home from 300m out. She added to that a 2nd in the ‘A’ 150m (21.3sec) and another 2nd in the ‘A’ Long Jump (3.94m).
More photo’s from the day:
And last but by no means last the Team Managers –
Mick Angland (Boys) John Cookson (Girls)
