THREE Blue Vests hope to be selected to compete in the forthcoming England Athletics national championships this weekend after achieving the qualifying standards at the Greater Manchester county schools’ championships.

Hannah Kelly warmed up in the best way possible by winning the inter-girls 200m.

For once, Hannah ran in a red vest as she was competing for Bury schools but the Bolton United Harrier was in imperious form.

Not only was the gold medal won but her time of 24.8secs was the fastest time ever run at this event, so she is now the proud holder of a Championship Best performance.

Entering next weekend’s under-20 championships, despite still being an u17, offers the chance to chase a qualifying time for future international races.

In the same race, Taiwo Taiwo won the silver medal in a time of 25.9, meaning both athletes have achieved the qualifying standard to compete at this year’s English Schools’ national championships.

It was also a great day for Ben To, who competed in the junior boys’ 100m.

He finished a creditable third in the final, but more importantly also achieved the qualifying standard of 11.7, where the entire podium clocked the same time.

There were many other fantastic performances on the day from Bolton United Harriers with many personal best times, finalists and medals won.

For the endurance groups, five Blue Vests competed at the popular Two Lads fell race in Horwich in midweek.

Some good age-group category finishes included: 24th Scott Crompton 39mins 33secs, 27th Paul Mills 39:54, 44th Daryl Bentley 41:31, 46th James Rideout 41:41, 85th Gary Jones 46:36.

For Daryl Bentley, it came after completing his latest ultra-distance event, knocking off the 35 miles of the Northants Ultra Shires and Spires in 5:38:35.

He clocking the 26.2-mile marathon distance at 3:58:00 – a sub-four hour time good considering the terrain.

Elsewhere, in the second Astley Park trail race, Anthony Valentine was second in 24:00, while Liz Proctor won the women’s race in 29:14. Toby Coop clocked 5:58 in the juniors’ race.

John Grimshaw clocked 50:48 for 111th of the 271 runners at the Morecambe 10K.

Previously, Chester’s Grosvenor Park was the base for two Blue Suits among the 932 starters of the Deva Triathlon.

Both were warming up for their Ironman efforts next month with: 185th Paul Trainor 2:18:11 (27:06; 1:37; 1:08:11; 1:38; 39:38), 407th Dean Johnson 2:30:47 (32:18; 3:02; 1:11:06; 1:31; 42:47).

Molly and Lily Philbin took part in the sixth and final race of the English Junior Fell Running Championships at Cowpe near Rossendale.

Over a challenging 2.8km course with 175m climb, u13 Lily ran bravely to finish 11th in the race with 16:43, also securing 11th place overall in the six-race series with the best four positions counting.

By the time Molly ran in the u17s' race, the heavens had opened and, combined with blustery conditions, the 6.4km race with 299m of ascent was very challenging.

Molly battled hard to secure 11th place in the race with 44:43 and also 11th place overall in the series, an exact repeat of sister Lily's result.

Both girls will be in the same age categories next year and will have their hopes pinned on achieving a top-10 position.