BOLTON Harriers made an impressive start to the Greater Manchester Sportshall League.

The boys’ team is now 139 points ahead after only one match and the girls are in third place, despite having had 10 athletes missing.

In addition, George Miller, Thomas Halliwell, Nathaniel Marshall, Abigail Booth, Megan Kirby, Jasmine Marshall and Fiona Gande have been chosen to represent Greater Manchester in the Under 11 category in the “Fun in Athletics” competition.

Many of the athletes competed in the first round with Miller winning the U11 vertical Jump. D Kiss and Nathaniel Marshall also finished first in the standing long jump, with T Halliwell second in the speedbounce.

The U13 boys carried on the success with S Kirkpatrick and B Mort winning the A and B vertical jump. In the standing long jump C Ashton and R Sidlow achieved first place points, with Sidlow going on to win the standing triple jump alongside H Ndiaye, who won the B string. In the shot-putt C Ashton came first and J Mort second in the B string, with A Miller and P Welsby coming second in the two strings of the speedbounce. The U15 boys vertical jump saw J Whitefield gain second place. His team-mates R Makin and C Smith came first in both strings of the shot-putt. In the standing triple A, Marshall came first and A Vanderpuy came second in the B group.

There were outstanding performances in the girls’ events, including M Kirby and A Booth coming first in the U11 speedbounce. In the U13 standing triple L Kirby came second in the B string. In the U15 standing long jump L Miller and E Ritchie each achieved second place points, with E Ritchie also coming second in the B string of the U15 shot-putt.

On the track Nathaniel Marshall finished second in the U11 one-lap final, and George Miller won the three-lap time trial. In the U13 two-lap final R Sidlow came first, and in the four-laps time trial H Ndiaye came second. C Ashton was second in the six-lap time trial. Bolton performed well in the relays with wins for the U11s and U13s with the U15s second.

For the girls team D Scott gained vital first place points in the U13s two-lap race, and the U15s relay team came second.

The Harriers had 40 competitors when Leverhulme Park hosted the Red Rose Cross Country League. One of the youngest, Liam Doherty, was fourth in the U11 boys’ race, while the girls’ team of Olivia Kearney, Robyn Taylor and Juliette Howarth finished sixth. Amelia Hill also ran.

The U13 boys team of Simon Walker, Liam Mathews and Jacob Kearney finished first. Their team-mates Will Grimshaw, Jack Gamory, and C Greenhalgh were not far behind. The U13 girls matched the boys’ enthusiasm with Laeh Peploe, Taylor Coppell, and Katrina Steele, finishing second. Mollie Nuttall and Emma Nicholson also competed.

The U15 boys – Jonathan Kay, Danny Johnson and J Darlington – finished third overall. In the U15 girls race C Jones came 6th. Tom Carson won the U17 boys race to help the team to third overall with team-mates Zak Heywood and Chris Kay finishing eighth and 24th respectively. In the U17 girls race Oriel Hardman built on her recent successes, finishing second. Cath Brogan and Rebecca Fordham finished 15th and 22nd in the women’s race.

The men’s team of A Valentine, Frazer Jardine, Dave Shaw, Ian Selby, Paul Turner and John Ward finished fifth. Selby, Turner and Ward linked up with Nick Haworth to finish sixth overall in the veterans’ team event.