THE past year has seen a transformation at Bury Athletic Club, but despite major work being carried out on its Market Street track, athletes' achievements have continued to go from strength to strength, writes Mark Granby.

The 400m track was deep cleaned and re-lined and the old changing rooms were demolished to create additional parking space.

Bury's 650m cinder training track was weeded and scarified to give much-needed additional resource to support the club’s growing membership.

And after a successful year on and off the track, everyone at the club is looking forward to 2016 with eager anticipation.

It would be fantastic to see a similarly good start to the year as we enjoyed last January, when Ben Forrest, Francis Woodcock, Sophie Whittaker, Christie Cook and Benn Heywood all qualified to represent Greater Manchester in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships.

February saw Marcus Dey win the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Championships with Woodcock, Forrest and Whittaker also securing selection for the English Championships. The trio of Heywood, Harry Stainton and Rob Granby won the bronze medal in the senior boys’ team event.

In March, Dey’s performance in the English Schools Cross Country earned him an England vest in an international fixture in Dublin, where he finished an impressive 11th.

In Sportshall athletics, Bury’s Grace Goodsell, Patrick Clarke and Daisy Worthington all qualified to represent Greater Manchester in the national finals.

April saw Katie Geelan and Byron Edwards secure victory in the Manchester Marathon two-leg relay in a combined time of 2hrs 56mins 8secs.

In the London Marathon, Edwards ducked under the three-hour barrier with a time of 2:58:02.

In May, the track and field season got under way with Bury athletes putting in some fantastic performances in the Northern League, Cheshire League and Youth Development North West League.

June saw the Greater Manchester Schools Championships with Whittaker (3000m), Dey (1500m), James Coghlan (long jump), Hattie Vaughan (high jump) and Ellis Greenwood (hammer) all being selected for the county team.

Over the fells, Ben Coop and Donna Cartwright were victors in the Two Towers fell race, which they followed up with further wins in the Eddie’s Revenge race a fortnight later.

And Bury’s treasurer, Jean Simpson, was awarded the MBE for services to athletics in the Queen's birthday honours list.

July saw more fixtures, including the Mini Leagues, where Goodsell, Worthington, Jerrel Livingston, Katherine Townsend and brothers Elliott and Evan Savage all performed well.

In August, the track and field season started to draw to a close.

Bury’s young athletes performed brilliantly to win the YDL and the seniors hung on bravely to avoid relegation in the Northern League.

Sprinter Mike Hunter even ran in the 5,000m to secure additional points with brave multi-event performances from Geelan, Granby, Stainton, Giles Bennett, Viola Melinghi, Nicola Harland, Hashim Shah and Dave Flood. Jenny Yates, Pam Hitchin and Louise Hannant also stepped up from the jogging section to score valuable points.

There was good news for Jenna Allen-Cartwright and Coghlan as both were selected to run for Greater Manchester in the Northern Inter Counties, while Whittaker earned a representative vest in the World Mountain Racing Championships.

September saw the transition to the roads with young Patrick Watson producing a stunning 35:50 in the City of Salford 10k.

Still on the track, James Colbeck competed for Great Britain in the World Transplant Games, where he won the long jump and was honoured as team captain.

In October, the cross country season got under way with Bury competing in the Red Rose League, a series of four meetings over October, November and December.

It was Bury’s best ever showing in the league with a total of nine league titles being taken over the individual and team races.

The individual winners were Woodcock (under-13s boys), Dey (u15 boys) and Whittaker (u17s ladies), while Bury had team triumphs in the u13s girls, u15s boys, u17s men, u20s ladies, u20s men and senior ladies.