Three of Bury- AC’s talented athletes had huge success at the English Athletics Combined Events Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

The meeting also incorporated the British Milers Club races on the Sunday and England Athletics had announced the fastest male and female athletes competing in the 800m would be selected to represent England at an international meeting in Belgium next month.

Sixteen-year-old Anna Gisbourne was placed in the A race, where she was the youngest in the field of six athletes. She showed great tactical awareness, controlling the race over the early stages before kicking away on the final lap. She withheld a challenge from Solihull’s Lily Saxon to cross the line in 2mins 9.79secs to become the fastest female athlete of the day and the performance should secure her selection for her first senior international vest.

Jay Cook pulled together a great string of performances over the weekend in the junior men’s heptathlon competition. In the opening event, the 60m sprint, he set a new lifetime best of 7.83 and followed that with a 5.66 long jump, slightly down on his best. However, in the shot he produced a new lifetime best putt of 13.41. In the pole vault, he equalled his personal best with 3.90 and moved to 11th place in the overall standings overnight.

On Sunday morning he was back on the track in the 60m hurdles, where he ducked under the nine-second barrier for the first time, with a nippy 8.89. In the high jump, he recorded 1.78 for 10th place after six events. In the final event, the 1000m which is not his favoured event, he recorded 3:09.41. This gave the Loughborough student a new PB point score of 4,361 and secured him 14th place.

Rosella Togo, also a Loughborough student, competed in the senior women’s pentathlon. In the 60m hurdles, she took sixth in her heat with 9.38, placing her 11th overall. In the high jump, she produced a best jump of 1.54, consolidating her in 10th overall.

She produced a solid performance in the shot, putting 11.09 and moving her up to ninth overall, then in the long jump she produced a best leap of 5.44. In the final event, the 800m, she clocked 2:33.03 and recorded a season’s best point tally of 3,437 to give her ninth place.

On the Saturday, Ellie Richardson, a new member of Bury AC, ran in the Lancashire Cross Country Championships at Blackburn’s Witton Park and took an excellent 18th place, but was seventh in her under-20 age category.

The performance should see her being selected to represent the county in the Inter Counties championships in Nottingham, in March.

On Sunday, four members of the club competed at the Manchester Indoor meeting at SportCity.

The star performance came from Ethan Statham in the 600m.

Running as a first year U13, the Bury youngster took third place against older boys, but was delighted with a new PB of 1:47.26. The time ranks him number one in the UK for the distance in his age group.

Corinne Newton also competed over 600m. The U17 set a season’s best of 1:48.69 to take fifth place in her heat.

There was also a season’s best for Evie Elliott in the U17 women’s 60m hurdles where she took fourth place with 9.49, just a 10th of a second off her PB.

Oliver Cooper competed in the pole vault and set a season’s-best vault of 3.20. He was highest placed U15 and the performance sees him ranked number one in the UK for his age.