DEBUTANT Amelia Rose outshone her more experienced club-mates to post Bolton Tri Club’s best individual finish at a junior triathlon in Blackpool.

The eight-year-old came second in the Tristart girls – the young age group of the competition, which was held at Palatine Leisure Centre.

The races – over different distances for each age group – attracted 187 children from all over the North West.

After starting the swim in the leisure centre swimming pool, the young competitors battled testing windy conditions on a neighbouring 1k off-road cycle circuit before hitting the roads in the local area for the run.

Amelia led the way for Bolton Tri Club, which had a string of successes on the day.

Her highlight was the swim, clocking the fastest time in her age group, completing 50m in under a minute.

Adam Akik also put in an impressive display, coming fourth out of 22 boys in the highly-competitive T2 category, for competitors aged 11 and 12 years old.

He was third out of the swim and had the fourth-best bike and run times, and is doing well in the North West series overall.

Two big improvers were Sam Atherton, who was the fifth boy in the supersprint race, and Rebecca Taylor, who kept a steady pace throughout the T2 girls.

Both are regulars at training sessions and their fitness is clearly increasing. Georgia Heath and Sam Murphy finished well up in the T1 category for competitors aged nine and 10. Georgia came eighth out of 23 girls, with a joint top time for her bike ride, while Sam was ninth out of 19 boys.

Marcus Dey, who is in his first year in T3, for 13 and 14-year-olds, was coming back from illness and although no-one could touch him on the swim, he was overtaken on the bike and run to finish third overall.

The winner was Matthew Willis, from Wrexham AC, who is a year older and the national T3 champion.

Nina Carter competed in her first youth category triathlon, for 15 and 16-year-olds, and coped well with the step up in distance, taking 52 minutes to complete the 400m swim, 10k bike ride and 3k run.