North of England Senior Division 1 Sat 5 May 2018, Wigan A promising start by Preston Harriers senior team in their first match at Wigan showed that they have the talent to challenge for honours this season. With key members of the team missing, Harriers athletes showed that they were willing to compete in events that were not their first choice in order to score points for the team. This team spirit carried them to finish second behind the host team Wigan. Harriers recorded 18 event wins.
Harriers sprint group under the guidance of husband and wife coaching team of Peter and Caroline Warden are showing they are one of the best squads in the north of England with wins for Josh Leatherd (100m) and Alex Marsden (200m) with 11.2s and 22.4s respectively. Veteran Symon Woan (200m), Leon Stubbs(400m) and Josh Leatherd (400m) all came second recording 22.5s, 49.1s and 52.8 respectively. The team of Symon, Alex, Josh and George Reed won the 4 x 100 metres relay in 44.2s with a poor second changeover. Peter Durham showed his value to the team by winning the 400m hurdles (58.5s) and the high jump (1.65m) and placed fourth in the shot and discus and was the 3rd leg runner of the winning 4 x 400m relay team (3.31.3s) scoring 22 points. Daniel Bebbington continued his impressive form by winning both the 800m (1.55.1s) and the 1500m (4.00.6s). Ethan Tibbs cleared 1.75m in the high jump to set a lifetime best performance. Team manager David Rigby led by example winning the 5000m (15.31.5) after finishing fourth in the 800m.
Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Jolly, the hurdling supremo, stepped up to the senior 400m flat to win in 57.7s, the 7th fastest under 17 time in the country this year. Blythe Fourie (4.47.0s) and Annie Duffy (4.53.3s) won the ‘A’ & ‘B’ 1500m races. In the 3000m both Eleanor Ward (10.44.0s) and Emma Hargreaves (11.50.6s) (returning to competing after a 2-year layoff), won the ‘A’ & ‘B’ races respectively. Multi-talented Amy Lupton was the busiest athlete scoring 32 points by winning the long jump (5.18m) and javelin(40.18m) and placed second in the triple jump (10.68) and sixth in both the hammer (22.05m) and shot (9.18m). Miriam Luft’s début for Harriers saw her win the 400m Hurdles (79.6s), 2nd in the high jump (1.60m) and 4th in the shot (8.10m).