Bolton Harriers Senior team dominated once again in Northern League Division
2 to clinch the divisional title with only 3 of 4 matches completed. The club
cannot now be caught and the priority now is the promotion match on September
1st, where the club should have a great chance of regaining Division 1 status.

Many of the club's athletes shone on their home track, Katie Eckersley running a
lifetime best to win the 400m, High Jumper Brian Hall adding a Triple Jump win
to a routine victory in his specialist event, and teenager Matt Osbourne racing
clear to win the 200m.
Eckersley clocked 58.5 seconds to hold off her Liverpool rival over 1 lap, and
the 20 year-old also ran a superb anchor leg to pick up 2 places in the 4x400m
relay. Rachel Pounds ran a season's best to win the B 400m race. Osbourne leapt
6.56m for an easy win in the Long Jump, before picking up his first senior
sprint win of the season with an equally dominant performance and a 22.7
clocking in the 200m. Hall won the High Jump with a leap of 2 metres, before
recording 12.62m in the Triple Jump. Tom Hope was not far behind, jumping 12.57m
to ensure a maximum points haul, shortly after winning the High Hurdles and
placing 2nd in the 400m hurdles. Ian Bowles recorded his first win of the track
season in the 3000m Steeplechase, before being narrowly squeezed into 2nd in the
1500m.

In the Javelin, Emma Thornton won by a huge margin with a throw of over 36
metres, and youngster Rebecca Makin threw the senior implement over 27m for 2nd
place and maximum points. Louise Kay and Jemima Hall picked up good points the
Hammer, as did Simon Bissell, once again winning the men's event. Michael
O'Donnell threw superbly to take 2nd in the Javelin. The 16 year-old launched
the senior implement 42 metres. Carl Hardman ran away with the 5000m, opening up
a commanding early lead before going on to lap all but the 2nd placed athlete in
a new personal best of 14:48.

Another 16 year-old, Frazer Jardine, also responded brilliantly on his Senior
team debut, running  a perfect tactical race to win the 800m B race in a
personal best time of 2 minutes 1.2 seconds while Ricky Lowe won the B events in
both the Long Jump and High Jump.

Harriers have a British League Cup match in Blackpool this weekend, and then go
into the final match as Champions, looking to complete two perfect league
campaigns by winning 8 matches in a row.

By Andy Parker