By Steve Houghton

BOLTON United Harriers and Athletic Club celebrated a successful year at the annual awards presentation last Friday.

Catherine O’Dwyer became the first female to win the Steve Kenyon Endurance Challenge Trophy while Margaret Rushton and Les Hall both received life member status.

Margaret was the guest of honour, presenting the awards and giving a short speech about how her track and field officiating career began when her son was at BUH&AC and progressed to a Level 4 International Meeting Official for British Athletics.

She has been competition director for the British Universities and Colleges Indoor and Outdoor Athletics Championships for the last seven years, with other roles at the highest level including track umpire at the London 2012 Olympic Games and team leader on the track at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Club president Scott Whittle also presented a commemorative token to Les Hall, a new life member who has given 25 years service to the club in several capacities.

Certificates of achievement were presented to the 12 athletes who had broken junior club records in 2014: Nathaniel Marshall, Thomas Halliwell, Jack Dickinson, Megan Hennessey, Hannah Kelly, Alice Tonge, Georgia Lever, Rachel Bailey, Anna Chadbond, Ellie Gettinby, Georgia Greenhalgh and Amy Howatson.

Other award winners: male u7 Conor Gettinby, female u7 Isobel Hall, male u9 Jack Kingdon, female u9 Lily Philbin, male u11 Ben Pickford, female u11 Clemencia Longthorne, male u13 Adam Akik, female u13 Alice Tonge, male u15 Nathaniel Marshall, female u15 Georgia Lever, male u17 Jack Dickinson, female u17 Anna Chadbond, male veteran Mark Swannell, female veteran Catherine O'Dwyer.

Disciplines: male cross country Declan Toomey, female cross country Rachel Bailey, male road runner Karl Darcy, female road runner Catherine O'Dwyer, male jumper/vaulter/hurdler Chris Mann, female jumper/vaulter/hurdler Georgia Lever, male thrower Rob Makin, female thrower Katie Oakley, male distance track Jonothon Kay, female distance track Amy Howatson, male sprinter Jack Dickinson, female sprinter Hannah Kelly, endurance challenge Catherine O'Dwyer.

Club: male most improved u17 Declan Toomey, female most improved u17 Lauren Holt, male most improved Chris Povey, female most improved Cherry Collison, male senior Chris Mann, female senior Demi Scott.

Cherry Collinson and Andrew Doyle led Bolton Harriers home in the UK Firefighters 2UP Duathlon.

The run-bike-run format in which the teams of two had to stay within 20m of each other at all times in both disciplines, saw the Bolton pair complete the opening 5.6k jog around Rivington Country Park in 29mins 45secs.

The 37.2km cycle leg to Belmont via Anglezarke was done in 1:41:37 before they clocked 32:19 for the second run giving them an over time of 2:48:54 for 10th place in the mixed category and 94th overall.

Experienced M40 Ironmen Shaun Lomax and Laurence Jackson made up the four-minute deficit to team-mates on the bikes by recording 1:37:19.

They lost ground on the final hilly run, to clock 2:54:58 for 29th place in the vet category rankings.

Stewart Brierley and Chris Ainsworth blasted out of the blocks, completing the run in 28:49, but a punctured tyre led to a 2:20:54 bike leg and a 3:31:25 and 38:05 for the final run for a total of 38:05.

Elsewhere, Eric Ranicar won the M65 category with 1:07:35 (57th overall) in the Sweatshop 10-mile race at Bispham, Blackpool.

The Trafford 10k saw Karl Darcy pick up a personal best of 32:49 for 82nd place in an international class field of 841, taking his improvement to almost six minutes in the 31-year-old's two years with BUH&AC.

Bolton United Harriers host their annual Bolton 10k race on Sunday, April 26.

With more than 400 runners already entered, anyone interested in taking part should go to the event website www.bolton10k.org for more information.