NINE Blue Vests enjoyed a suitably ‘smashing’ Friday evening at the Christleton 5K, with lifetime bests

collected by all.

Hosted by Chester Tri, the pan-flat fast course saw Jonny Kay second of 421, with age-group podiums for John Knowles (bronze M45) and Katie Oakley (silver FU20). Personal best improvements ranged from Karl Darcy’s four seconds to Stephen Bonney’s minute-and-half.

Kay and Darcy settled in the lead group for the first 2K, as the eventual winner Dejene Gezimu from Liverpool Harriers via Ethiopia, established a decent gap.

All pushed on at the 4K mark in a bid for a sub-15 time and Kay took second place with about 50m to go with Darcy close behind in fourth, both achieving their objective of a sub-15-minute time.

Results: 2nd Jonny Kay 14:56 (PB by 20secs), 4th Karl Darcy 14:58 (PB by 4secs), 20th Tommy Harrison 15:43 (PB by 57secs), 41st John Knowles 16:18 (PB by 18secs), 69th Scott Crompton 16:54 (PB by 65secs), 112th Chris Povey 17:32 (PB by 52secs), 140th Stephen Bonney 17:55 (PB by 95secs), 143rd Chris Pickford 17:55 (PB by 74secs), 176th Katie Oakley 18:37 (PB by 94secs).

The second fixture of the Youth Development League Lower (under-13s and u15s) took place at the Witton Park Arena in Blackburn and saw junior Blue Vests brave the cold and wet conditions.

Despite the atrocious weather there were some fantastic results.

Hosts Blackburn Harriers won with Bolton United fifth out of seven overall with a predicted score of 458 points – 10 more than at the previous match in Bury where Bolton finished fourth, showing how fierce the competition is.

In the u13s girls, notable results included Julia Winogrodzka’s 11.1secs in winning the A 70m hurdles race, a new PB that tops the year’s UK ranking, and the 4x100m relay team (Elina Velickaite, Elizabeth Williamson, Idowu Taiwo and Winogrodzka) winning in a time of 57secs after a disqualification at Bury for passing the baton too early. For the u13s boys, a great duo of shot putters – Luke Greenhalgh and Josh Bentley-Hughes – did well, sending 3.25kg shots 6.85m and 4.61m respectively, to achieve second places in both the A and B strings.

There was also a fine victory for Jack Kingdon in the B 75m hurdles in 15.30.

The u15s girls’ team put in a great effort, starting with Anna Quinn getting a respectable 47.9s in the 300m and 29.5s in the 200m despite a thigh injury.

Heather Cade won the B hammer with a throw of 18m and finished second in B discus with a throw of 15.84m.

Shot putters Natasha Robinson and Abbie Williams then matched the u13s boys’ double second place with throws of 8.72m and 7.27m respectively.

In the u15s boys, Blue Vests dominated the sprints. Benjamin To won the A 100m with a new PB of 11.6 and Eniola Adedotun followed in his footsteps winning the B heat, also with a PB, in 12.3. Adedotun was also a winner in the B 200m in a personal best of 24.5 whilst To narrowly missed out on winning his A race, beaten by a tenth of a second.

In the 300m, Louie Johnson’s 43.0 and Ruairi Behan’s 43.7 were enough for another double second place for Bolton. In the field events, by throwing a 4kg hammer 19.92m, Logan Alston-Forrester secured a new personal best and second place.

The 4x100m relay team of Behan, Adedotun, Johnson and To easily won in 50.5, an enormous gap of 2.9 seconds ahead of the team in second.

The teams were:

U13s girls: Millie Bracey, Ruby Erzan-Essien, Lucy Gettinby, Elizabeth Olude, Lily Philbin, Amy Rossington, Abigail Steele-Lesh, Hannah Swales, Idowu Taiwo, Grace Tonge, Elina Velickaite, Elizabeth Williamson, Julia Winogrodzka.

U13s boys: Harry Aldred, Oisin Behan, Josh Bentley-Hughes, Luke Greenhalgh, James Horrocks, Jack Kingdon, Jason Scaife, Matthew Wilkinson.

U15s girls: Heather Cade, Ciara Gettinby, Molly Illingworth, Helena Lathwell-Watts, Brianna Murphy, Anna Quinn, Natasha Robinson, Megan Twigg, Abbie Williams.

U15s boys: Eniola Adedotun, Logan Alston-Forrester, Ruairi Behan, Louie Johnson, Ben Pickford, Benjamin To.