BOLTON Tri Club put in a strong performance across the board in the second event of Triathlon England's North West junior series.

The competition moved on to the Salt Ayre Aquathon in Lancaster, where 17 of the Bolton club's junior members acquitted themselves well.

Conditions were good, although the venue's eight-lane swimming pool uses salt water, giving all the competitors something extra to contend with.

Entrants from Bolton were split across all five age groups, which have an increasing scale of distances in the swim and run.

Those in Tristar One, aged nine to 10, completed a 150m swim and 1.4k run, Tristar Two (11-12) took on a 250m run and 1.8k run and Tristar Three (13-14) battled through a 400m swim and 3k run.

The Youth race (15-16) included a 500m swim and 3.4k run, while the oldest age group, the Juniors (17&18 years), faced a 500m swim and 5k run.

Reece Aldred gave the rest of the Bolton contingent an early boost by completing the fourth fastest run in T1, finishing in 6mins 2secs to make up seven places after the swim and finish sixth overall.

Harry Davies was 15th and also did a good run in 6:58.

In T1 girls, Amelia Rose was sixth fastest swimmer in what is her strongest discipline, eventually finishing 12th out of 22 girls overall.

Bolton had the highest entry in the T2 girls, with 32 competitors setting off in two waves.

In the first wave, Georgia Heath and Alicia Aldred both swam well and held on to their places in the run to finish 4th and 10th overall, respectively.

Georgia again beat her big rival from last year’s series, Blackpool Aquatics' Felicity Barnes.

Jesika Eslick, Amy Walton and Emma Wild competed in the second wave. Jesika won the club's most improved award last year and showed why with an excellent performance, finishing 17th. Amy and Emma finished 26th and 27th, respectively.

In T2 boys, Max Davies showed his improved technique on the swim to finish 15th.

New member Melissa Thompson came sixth in T3 girls with a fast time for the 3k run of 11:49. Rebecca Taylor is still getting used to the longer distance and was 16th.

The same applied to the T3 boys, where the club's three competitors have all recently moved up an age group. Adam Akik finished eighth, Rhys Whelan and George Walton were tied 18th and Joseph Foster was 20th.

Nina Carter was fourth out of five girls in the Youth race with a good run time of 15:07.

Sam Foster was the only boy in the Junior race and his run was even more impressive, clocking 18:33 for 5k.