RECORDS tumbled and the medals mounted for East Lancashire stars at the Lancashire Track and Field Championships held over two days last weekend at Stanley Park in Blackpool.

On Saturday, there were eight Championship records for our local clubs and another three for athletes with local connections.

Blackburn Harrier Macauley Grimes won five medals to show his mastery in the three disciplines of running, throwing and jumping and in the U15 triple jump set a Championship Best Performance (CBP) of 11.22 metres. Elizabeth Greenwood is more of a specialist, excelling in the longer distances, and the U13 set CBPs in both of her events, with 2:27.0 in the 800m and 4:55.5 in the 1500m.

Karl Billington and Luke Evans have moved up age bands this season and both made an early impact with Karl lowering the CBP in the U20s 3000m to 8:31.9 and Luke cutting the senior 200m mark to 21.7 seconds.

Meanwhile, hurdlers Oliver Aspden in the U17s 400m and Liam Monaghan in the U20s 110m broke new ground with respective times of 57.0 seconds and 15.6 seconds.

Rossendale Harrier Megan Davies celebrated her 14th birthday a day early with a CBP in the under U15 girls’ 3000m, clocking 10:25.8.

Pendle AC were always going to win the U17 women’s shot, with Charlotte Beech’s 10.27m only three centimetres ahead of Lucy Chadwick’s best effort.

The club won 17 medals including five golds and were particularly strong in the field events where two athletes each won three medals. Natrika Wildman won hers in the U13 girls’ long jump, javelin and shot and Ryan Inglis made the podium in the U20s shot, discus and hammer.

Ribble Valley AC took five gold medals and dominated the U20s 400m and 800m. Leigh Lennon won the women’s races and Sam Yates the men’s while Sarah Ridehalgh took the senior 5000m. Sisters Vikki and Lauren Grime had their own tussle for supremacy in the senior women’s hammer with Vikki finally winning by a clear metre in 29.98m.

It was Hyndburn AC’s best result although there were also gold medals for veteran Nick Rawcliffe in the senior 110m hurdles, and for Marnie Shirtcliffe in the U15 girls’ javelin.

Chorley AC won two gold medals thanks to Eloise Manger in the senior javelin and Luke Betts in the U17s 3000m. Arguably their athlete of the tournament though was Paralympic star Graeme Ballard, who suffers from cerebral palsy. He qualified for the 100m final where he set a personal best of 12.3 seconds to finish sixth.