SHARPLES stormed to victory in the Cooperative Bolton Schools High School Track Cycling Championships for years seven, eight and nine.

They beat reigning champions Withins into second place by a huge margin at the Manchester Velodrome, and there was another big gap in the score between the runners-up and third-placed George Tomlinson.

Canon Slade entered for the first time this year, but had no chance of winning the team title with only three riders.

One of them, Matt Rotherham, a current Great Britain talent team rider, won the one-lap and two-lap time trials in impressive style, setting new championship records in both events, while in the girls’ event, Mollie Nuttall of Sharples took both the one-lap and two-lap titles.

In the boys’ team sprint Canon Slade took gold, their team comprising of Rotherham, Tom Rotherham and Elliot Barnes, with a time fractionally outside Withins’ championship record set last year.

The girls’ event saw the Sharples trio of Nuttall, Sophie Norris and Grace Peatfield cross the line first closely followed by George Tomlinson and Withins.

l Final positions: 1. Sharples 50 points; 2. Withins 92 points; 3. George Tomlinson 143 points; 4. Smithills 147 points; 5. Canon Slade 41 points.