SOPHIE Whittaker helped Greater Manchester to a silver medal in Saturday’s Inter Counties Cross Country Championships.

She was one of four Bury athletes taking part in the event, which was held in the grounds of Prestwold Hall in Loughborough.

Whittaker was a counter for the under-20s team, finishing 31st, while club-mate Lauren Booth finished further down the field in 168th place.

Oliver Makinson ran well in the u17s men’s race to finish 50th in a high-quality field, while Lucy Alcock was 259th in the same age group for the girls.

Three of Bury’s u15s athletes competed in the England Athletics Combined Events Championships at Sheffield last weekend.

Daisy Worthington, Amy Garroch and Ella Hall all set new personal-best point scores in the pentathlon, which saw them compete over 800m, 60m hurdles, high jump, long jump and shot put.

Worthington was sixth overall (3,061 points) and won the bronze medal in the Northern Championships, which were incorporated into the meeting. The current national 800m champion in her age group recorded the fastest time in the event on the day, clocking 2mins 23.83secs), and also set a new personal best in the high jump (1.46m) and a season's best in the long jump (4.75m).

Garroch finished 35th (2,104), setting bests in the 800m (3:10.59) and shot put (7.02m) and a season's best in the high jump (1.37m).

Hall was 42nd (1,350), setting a personal best in the 60m hurdles (11.63) and a season’s best in the 800m (2:54.03).

Bury also had six u11s athletes representing Greater Manchester in Sunday’s North West Fun in Athletics Sports Hall Championships.

Reilly Carson, Matilda Brett, Enya Hartley and Leah Hancock helped the team to fourth place in the girls' event, with Hancock winning the target throw.

Noah Carter and Oliver Horford scored valuable points to help the boys’ team also take fourth place.

A large group of the club's young athletes also travelled to East Cheshire to compete in the open cross country races.

There were great runs in the u9s boys' race from Theo Nuttall (10th), Jake Norton (18th), Haris Bachoo (24th), Daniel Garland (25th) and Louis McGoldrick-Wroe (31st). For the girls, Leah Bergin (18th), Isabelle Chadwick (38th) and Alina Iqbal-Willan (41st) all ran well.

In the u11s race for boys, Jai Bachoo (11th), Finlay Collings (27th), Oliver Booth (28th) and Kieran Chadwick (37th) all had strong runs.

Rosa Murphy (29th), Summer Whitfield (30th), Lola Potts (37th) and Olivia Mayo (43rd) ran well in the girls’ race.