Five young sprinters from Bolton United Harriers entered this year’s indoor national championships with high hopes and did not disappoint.

Their preparation had all gone well, running great times in all of their warm-up meetings.

Under-15s Allyssia May, Princess Iwelu and Matilda Hall all lined up in the semi-finals of the girls’ 60m. Matilda was first up, finishing fifth but smashing her personal best in a time of 7.96secs. Princess duly followed, knocking more than 0.3s off her PB, in 7.84, to come second in her race and make the final as fifth-fastest qualifier. Last up was Allyssia, who powered to second in her semi-final, too, to qualify third fastest.

It was a tight affair in the final where both girls excelled and Allyssia took bronze, running 7.78 to equal her PB and her own club record, while Princess finished fifth in another fast time.

In the U17 girls’ 60m, Cherie Ufuoma ran a blistering semi-final in 7.65, which was just outside GB international Hannah Kelly’s longstanding club record. However, it was not to be in the final and a poor start made it difficult to get back into the race over such a short distance. She did, however, power through and finished an amazing sixth.

U15 Auri Naraghi competed in her first national indoor championship and, despite being nervous, came fourth in her semi-final with a new indoor PB and she was ranked 11th overall on the day.

The three U15 starlets Allyssia, Princess and Matilda, all returned on day two with Allyssia and Princess competing in the 200m and Matilda making her debut in the 60m hurdles.

In the semi-finals of the 200m, both Bolton girls ran strong races to qualify for the final and both recorded PBs, with Princess coming within 0.04 of the Bolton club record. In the final, she stormed to a bronze medal, with Allyssia finishing fifth despite an injury to her calf.

Last up was Matilda in the hurdles. After a bit of shaky semi-final where she only qualified for the final as a fastest loser, she lined up in one of the less-favoured outside lanes. She was not to be outdone by her training mates and stormed the final in a new PB of 9.15, driving hard off the last hurdle to claim a dramatic bronze medal.

Coach Les Hall was delighted with the weekend and said: “It was probably the best results at a major championship the club has ever had and to top it off all the athletes ran PB’s which is all you can ask for.

“I’m incredibly excited to see how far these girls can progress in the next few years.”

Next up for the club’s sprinters are the British championships which are taking place this weekend.

These are the qualifying event for the World Indoor Championships that are being held in Glasgow next month.

Hannah Kelly has high hopes of performing well and making the final in the women’s 400m and sprinter Ben To will be making his senior championship debut in the men’s 60m.