BOLTON is tantalisingly close to having its own road marathon again.

All that’s needed now are runners to take part in the Bolton Half Marathon in September in enough numbers.

Last year’s inaugural half marathon attracted 720 runners. If that could be pushed up to 1,200 this year then organiser Stewart Jones says he and his Mad Bull Events company would be prepared to start planning for a full marathon next year.

That would make Bolton one of only five towns and cities in the North West to have a road marathon and would be a massive event on the local calendar as well as having great economic benefits to the town.

So let’s do this. Come on runners – enter this year’s half marathon and play your part in bringing back the Bolton Marathon which was such an enormous event in the 1980s.

Neil Bonnar