BOLTON athlete Chris Mulvaney could be on his way to the Olympic Games after winning the 1,500m at the AAA's Championships.

The 22-year-old from Heaton put himself firmly in the minds of the Great Britain team selectors for the Games when he ran the perfect race at the Manchester Regional Stadium in the shadow of the City of Manchester Stadium.

Mulvaney was something of an unknown quantity to the favourites in the field after spending the last three years at university in Arkansas, USA.

He has hit peak form recently, becoming the USA Collegiate champion and Britain's most recent four-minute miler.

The meeting was screened live by the BBC throughout the weekend as it doubles up as the qualifiers for the Olympic Games team.

First or second place automatically qualifies athletes for the Games team as long as they have run the qualifying time, which will be Mulvaney's next target.

Bolton Harrier Hazel Carwardine finished eighth in the final of the women's long jump with a distance of 5m 90cm.

The 23-year-old had been suffering from a stomach bug all week and was unable to reproduce the 6m 21cms she jumped for England last weekend or her 6m 23cm personal best she leaped a month ago.

Anything longer than 6m 5cm would have won her a bronze medal at the meeting which attracted a capacity 6,000 crowd.

Clubmate Brian Hall jumped 2m 6cms in the high jump which was not enough to earn him a place in the final.

Bolton Harriers coach Allen Parkinson, who has coached Carwardine for several years, said the athletes will benefit greatly from competing at such a high profile event.

He said: "The atmosphere was fantastic and the experience they will gain from it will help them in the future. They will go away from it determined to do better next time."