BOLTON'S future sporting stars took part in their own mini-Olympics.

They were among 2,000 pupils to take part in this year's Great Manchester School Games held at the Regional Athletics Arena for the opening ceremony of the Winter Games on Tuesday.

Special guests at the ceremony included professional BMX rider Matti Hemmings, Olympian Kelly Massey and ‘Greater Manchester’s Got Talent’ competition winners, Greswell Primary School dance group.

Competitions included athletics, basketball, boccia, dance, gymnastics, handball, hockey, lacrosse, rugby union, rugby league, swimming and table tennis.

And this year, there was also a dance competition.

Medallists from Bolton were Gaskell Primary School for third place in the Year Five/Six lacrosse competition, Clevelands Preparatory for second place in Year Four/Five swimming competition, St James CE High School third for the under-13s and under-15s table tennis.

There were other individual successes in the competition including Maisie Bradshaw from St Brendan’s RC Primary School who finished third in the gymnastics Year One/Two individual competition.

Sara Tomkins, CEO at GreaterSport, organisers of the Greater Manchester School Games said: "Today’s event has showcased the strong values that our young people hold. They demonstrated not only their sporting capabilities but the school games values of passion, honesty, respect, teamwork, determination and self-belief which all shone through in their performances. Congratulations to every young person that took part in today’s event, you have done yourselves and your schools proud."

Pictures by Mark Bradley

The Greater Manchester Summer School Games will take place on June 26 where more young people from across Greater Manchester will come together to take part in 21 competitions in 15 different sports.