THE Redeemer have joined the Hall of fame after running, jumping and throwing their way to glory.

The talented team have been crowned the Blackburn and Darwen Sports Hall Athletics champions and will now represent the borough in the Lancashire finals later today.

A total of nine schools took part in the borough finals which were staged at Blackburn College.

However, more than 650 pupils across Blackburn and Darwen from 36 schools took part in a series of qualifying heats which were held at every secondary school.

At the grand final, 20 young leaders from Blackburn College assisted in running the competition.

“The event was a huge success and it was great to see and hear so many young people enjoying exercise, encouraging each other and performing so impressively,” said Andrew Mercer, competition manager of the Blackburn and Darwen Schools Sports Partnership who organised the event.

“The Redeemer were victorious and will now go to Blackpool to represent the borough at the county finals.”

Mercer also praised students at Blackburn College for their assistance.

He said: “I would also like to thank all the young leaders who are students at Blackburn College for their help. They were a credit to the college.”

The annual event included 11 events split in to track and field.

Track events included one and two lap relays, six lap paarlauf, ‘over and under’ relay and the 4x1 lap relay.

Field events include chest push, speed bounce, standing long jump, standing triple, vertical jump and soft javelin.

The Redeemer finished as overall champions, amassing 210 points, well ahead of closest rivals Shadsworth who totted up 122 points.

St James Blackburn and Longshaw finised joint third with 104 points each.

St Paul's Hoddlesden surpassed the century mark, scoring 102 points, to finish fifth with Ashleigh (94) and St Edward's (72) sixth and seventh respectively.

While Redeemer starred in the track events it was in the field that they really thrived.

On the track, Redeemer won the girls 1x1 relay and the boys six lap paarlauf and 4x1 lap relay events.

Shadsworth won the ‘double’ in the 2x2 boys and girls relay with St Paul's Hoddlesden crowned the boys 1x1 relay champions.

Longshaw won the girls paarlauf event with Ashleigh winning the girls 4x1 lap relay.

But it was in the field events that they really showed off their sporting talents.

The boys won all but one of the events - coming first in the chest push, speed bounce, standing triple jump, standing long jump and soft javelin.

Only St Paul's Hoddlesden, who won the vertical jump, denied them a clean sweep of victories. The girls weren’t as dominant but still won two events and finished as runners-up in another.

They won both the standing triple jump and soft javelin events and were runners-up in the chest push.

Elsewhere, the honours were shared out.

St Paul’s Hoddlesden won their second field event, winning the chest push, with Longshaw winning the vertical jump.

Ashleigh won the standing triple jump with speed bounce honours going to Shadsworth.