Month: February 2020

The British Indoor Championships took place over the weekend at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena for the very first time in Scotland.

Heading North with high hopes of at least reaching the final in the 1500 metre men’s event, and the support of his family, friends and coach, was our very own Jonny Kay.

Not only did he reach the final but stormed home into bronze medal position making a fantastic end to the Championships for this eminently likeable young man from Heaton.

Jonny’s training so far this year has been totally focussed on this event. He has been working with his coach Dave Shaw and team mates in the Bolton Harriers Elite group twice a week and also putting in extra sessions at SportCity in Manchester. Dave has had Jonny focussing on speed sessions, 1500 metre sessions, pyramid sessions and reps up to 1200 metres. “Very specific training to get me in the best possible shape for this event” he said.

“On Saturday for the semi-final I felt relaxed and knowing the opposition was confident of qualifying for the final the next day”.

Jonny duly came in first to qualify.

“ As regards the final I was feeling excited yet confident at the same time. I thought I might be in with a chance of a medal and had discussed tactics with my coach Dave Shaw prior to the race. Dave told me not to go to the front but keep in touch with the front, and also to make sure I did not get trapped on the inside. I knew George Mills (the eventual winner) had been the quickest in qualifying and wanted to keep sight of him”.

“ Fifth at the bell I soon moved into fourth. I was feeling strong and at the final bend I could see third place looking round and knew he hadn’t got much left. I found an extra gear and cruised into third in the final straight and was actually closer to second than fourth at the finish line”.

“After the race on the podium the enormity of my achievement still hadn’t sunk in. I was just looking at my family, friends and coach with a big grin on my face”.

Jonny is now having a well earned weeks rest before starting training for the outdoor season. Excitingly he is now aiming for the British Outdoor Championship in June which will be the Olympic Trials. Ominously for the opposition he aims to be in even better shape by then!

Five of Bolton United Harriers junior athletes competed at this weekends EA age group national indoor championships. Making their championship debuts were U15 Idowu Taiwo and U17 Fola Fasehun who both competed in the 60m short sprint. Idowu competed in the first event of the day and ran 8.62 in her heat which was just outside her personal best.

Fola who has only been training for 12 months has produced some superb performances to qualify for the championships. In her heat she blasted from the start to smash her PB and record a time of 8.09 seconds to qualify for the semi finals of the 60m. In the semi final against the best U17 athletes in the country she came a magnificent 7th in another top time of 8.11 seconds.

Also in the 60m, Eniola Adedotun lined up with high hopes of taking Les Hall’s training group bragging rites and running the quickest time ever in the group. It wasn’t to be and Eni unfortunately stumbled at 20m and wasn’t able to better his PB and finished 4th in his heat in 7.23 seconds. This was an agonising 0.04 seconds outside the time required to qualify for the semi final.

In the U20 women’s 400m Olivia Kimbowa finished 3rd in her semi final recording a time of 58.93 seconds. This sets her up perfectly for the outdoor season where she hopes to run 57 seconds.

Taiwo Taiwo doubled up in the sprints competing in both the 60m and 200m. This is an amazing achievement as Taiwo has been beset by injury over the last 2 years and has been unable to compete. To qualify for two events at the National championships is testimony to all her hard work and dedication. In the 60m heat she ran 7.94 to finish 3rd in her heat and then recorded 8.01 in the semi final. In her preferred event the 200m she came 4th in her heat in a time of 25.76 missing out on the semi final by just one place. What is even more remarkable is that this time is the second best female 200m time in the club in the last 12 months only behind European championship competitor Hannah Kelly and after only returning to training in the last 6 months.

All of the athletes will now return to hard training to start their preparation for the outdoor 2020 season.

Bolton United Harriers saw more glory this weekend as Laura Lombard was crowned Red Rose Senior women’s Cross Country champion at the awards ceremony in Horwich. Her team mate Jonny Kay was runner up in the senior men’s title. Together they attended this prestigious event with their delighted coach Dave Shaw to collect the silverware.

Laura’s first victory was at Leverhulme park on home turf and saw her run strongly with great club support to finish over a minute ahead of the next female. Incorporating thick mud and a river crossing this was a fine cross country course. Jonny Kay won the senior men’s race convincingly making it a clean sweep for the Bolton club and thrilling coach Dave Shaw in the process.

In November they headed to Todmorden. Laura again delivered a clear victory, taking an early lead and continuing to pull away in the second lap. Kay came through strongly to take second place.

The final battle took place at Rossendale traditionally thought of as more of a fell race with steep downhill sections. Laura maintained her concentration and finished with a sprint to complete a hatrick of victories and take the Senior women’s title together with the veteran title.

Rachel Bailey finished runner up in the Under 20s category with team mate Molly Philbin finishing 6th overall.

ETIHAD UNDER 15 GIRLS

On Sunday 2nd Feb in the Under 15s Girls event the Harriers team stormed home in 2nd place. Hannah Swailes, Millie Bracey, Lily Philbin and Abby Steelelesh are pictured. Lily Philbin also picked up a silver medal for the 6 lap event and bronze medal for the standing long jump.

NORTHERN U13/U15 INDOOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

5 Bolton athletes made the trip to Sheffield to compete at this years Northern u13/u15 indoor athletics championships.

Two of the youngest athletes in the field Summer Eden and Aliyah Martin both entered the 60m and 200m sprints. Both were making their debuts in a major championship and despite still attending primary school took it all in their stride.

Despite never having raced over 200m they both progressed to the semi finals and lined up in the same race. On this occasion Summer came out on top finishing third in 29.37 seconds whilst Aliyah came 5th, with her fastest time of the day being 30.06 seconds.

Both girls qualified for the semi finals of the 60m and Aliyah came 4th with her fastest time of the day, a new PB of 9.11 seconds. Summer having already won her heat was full of confidence and qualified for the final by finishing second in her semi final. In her final she finished 5th which is an amazing performance against girls who were mostly 12 months her senior. Her best time of the day was 8.80 seconds which ranks her 55th in the UK. The future of sprinting at Bolton United Harriers is in good hands with these two athletes.

Idowu Taiwo was the only Bolton U15 athlete and she didn’t disappoint. She easily qualified for the semi final in the 60m and finished a fantastic 6th. She now looks forward to the England Athletics national championship at the end of month.

U13 long jumper Isobel Hall still with the memories of a broken foot in 2019 competed in only her third long jump competition in 12 months. The injury was soon forgotten and she completed an amazing 6 rounds jumping 5 PB’s with a best of 4m 21. Agonisingly there was no medal as Isobel finished 4th

However fellow debutant U13 Herbie Kay was determined to bring back a medal. Training has been hampered recently due to injury but with real determination he leapt to 4m 38 to take a well deserved bronze medal.

WINDY HILL FELL RACE

On Sarurday 8th February the Harriers specialist fell runners Lee Petch and Andrew Gallagher attacked 9 miles and 1281 feet of ascent over the Pennine Moors and under the M62.This was their first fell run of the year and no doubt have lots more planned. Conditions were cold and muddy but our guys came home to Hollingworth Lake in more than respectable times of 1 hour 29 minutes and 1 hour 31 minutes. Both are pictured with their usual well earned post race snack.