BOLTON Olympic Wrestling Club are toasting the efforts of their members in regional and international competitions.

The sent a team to the Derbyshire Open at Wirksworth Leisure Centre recently.

It was the final competition of the year, and after a successful national championship weeks earlier, the team took a number of younger wrestlers to gain some experience.

They came back with some great results including two gold, five silver and two bronze medals.

Among the highlights were Grace Costello and Nathan Livesey winning their categories while Lucy McGrath, Tommy Costello, Freya Johnson, Joseph Higgins-Meadows and Jack Costello were all runners-up in their competitions.

Cameron Leader and Declan Fisher earned spots on the podium in third while Blayke Fisher was fourth in his event.

Club coach Craig Pilling said: "A special mention needs to go to Freya Johnson who competed in the 40kg males category winning a silver, due to having no females in her weight class.

"Declan Fisher who competed in the senior men's category at the age of 16, winning a bronze medal which was great display.

"This was a good team performance with some new wrestlers taking part and it looks promising for the future."

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Pilling travelled to Toulouse, France with the welsh national wrestling team to take part in an international competition.

He competed in the men's 66kg category where there were nine competitors.

He had a successful tournament winning three matches to take the gold medal.

First match he outclassed a French opponent to romp to an 11-0 victory.

Then in the semi-final of the competition he was matched up against a wrestler from Mexico and he was celebrating after a narrow 10-8 win.

The final match was a difficult proposition against Russia.

Even though it ended 6-6, Pilling had picked up the last points to earn him the victory.

Pilling said: "This was a tough competition as I was fighting out of my normal competitive weight of 57kg/61kg.

"But I had some tough matches which is what I needed and will stand me in good stead for my next international in Malta in two weeks time."

It is just more success for the club who were celebrating results at the British Senior Championships.

Mark Johnson took silver in the 74kg category despite being in the junior ranks still, Byrom Asgharyzadegan finished second in the 71kg mens Greco wrestling.

Molly Winton was a runner-up in the women’s freestyle while Hussein Asgharyzadegan was third in the veterans section and Tony Collin was third in the freestyle veterans at the 97kg level.