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.
