Saturday 2nd April saw the start of the outdoor 2016 track and field season. Even with the cold damp weather 58 Preston Harriers turned out to compete for their club with some great performances throughout the day, in the Mid Lancs League at Blackpool.
The first race on the track, the under 13 girls 100m, was won by Macy Noblett who ran the fastest time across the 6 heats. Later in the day Macy also won the Shot Put recording a new Preston Harriers club record of 9.54m before going on to her third win of the day in the 200m – definitely an athlete with great potential.

In the under 13s other notable performances included Imogen Blackwell who won the u13 girls 800m in 2min 39sec and Ethan Warren who recorded two second places in the 200m (30.6sec) and 1500m (5min 7sec). Thomas Barnes and Gregor Anderson continued the middle distance dominance finishing first and second respectively in the u13 boys 800m.

The Lancashire Fell Running Championships are usually run within another fell race on the annual calendar, but this year they had their own event which started in Sabden. The senior race was 5 ¼ miles with 1,499 feet of climbing onto the southern flanks of Pendle to Black Hill and Judiths Cairn. Conditions were windy, with squally showers. Chris Arthur of Bowland Fell Runners won in 38.07, and Nichola Jackson was first lady in 44.04. John Griffiths posted 48.29, Roy Parkinson 52.19 and Michael McLoughlin was 4th vet 60 in 55.33

The triathlon season got underway with two Harriers, Neil McDonald & Billy Johnstone, making the trip to Ulverston. New tri suits, designed by Preston Harrier Symon Woan, have arrived over the winter and there has been a race to see who competes in them first, the honours going to Neil and Billy! In the race that started with a 400m pool swim followed by what should have been a 28k bike section (shortened due to high coastal winds to 23k )and finishing with a 5.8k run, McDonald was first out of the pool but Johnstone came back in style on the bike section, establishing a decent lead hoping to stave off McDonald’s superior run pace at the end. However , the plan went awry when a broken gear lever robbed him of his lead, enabling McDonald to come by and take the spoils as first finisher in the new suits, finishing in 1:18:37, with Johnstone coming in with 1:22:02. The race was won by David Cullen in 1:02:43

Lone Preston Harrier Rob Affleck tested himself amongst the best athletes in the country last weekend at the IAAF World Half Marathon Cardiff. Affleck posted a creditable time of 1.11.15 to be justly rewarded with 1stMV40 within a prestigious field of fine athletes.

Gary Pennington won the hilly Calder Vale 10 mile race on Good Friday in 55.50, and he was over four minutes clear of the second placed runner. Jon Green was 9th in 63.45 and Lee Foley was 29th in 68.40, with Alan Martin 38th in 70.43. Peter Cowling recorded 1:12.06 whilst Alan Appleby was first vet 65 in 1:13.56 and 55th overall out of 196 finishers. Other Harriers were 70th – Andrew Tranter (1:16.50); 96th Victoria Cowling (1:23.32), 98th Victoria Duckett (1:24.12), 120th - Vicki Sherrington (1:29.21), 128th Karlyn Forrest (1:30.45) and 183rd Angela Tranter (1:49.14)

There was a strong and high quality field at the Salford 10k, also on Good Friday. In what is a usually highly competitive race, sixty two runners finished in under 36 minutes, but it is a good flat race for all runners. David Watson was 86th in 37.28 and there were 573 finishers.