BURY AC youngster Jerel Livingston jumped a lifetime's best distance in taking silver in the long jump at the Northern indoor championships for athletes under the ages of 15 or 13 in Sheffield.

He jumped 6.02m – moving him up to second place in the national rankings for his age category at the event.

Demonstrating his stamina as well as his strength and speed, he also made the finals of the 60m and 200m, taking sixth and fifth places respectively.

In his qualifying heat for the 200m, the young Bury athlete also set a new personal best of 24.76secs. Erin Kenyon and Freya Potts also made the journey across the Pennines and both were rewarded with season’s best performances in their respective heats of 800m, with Erin recording 2mins 39.24secs to take fifth in her heat, while Freya was just a margin slower, stopping the clock at 2.40.30 to take sixth in her race.

Saturday saw a large number of Bury athletes running in the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Championships on a muddy Heaton Park course.

Bury ran out as team winners of the senior and intermediate boys' races.

Oliver Makinson (running for his school town of Oldham) took third place in the senior boys’ race with Bury athletes Patrick Watson (sixth), Kamili Bell (14th) and Jack Smith (15th) securing vital team points.

Top performance of the day came from Francis Woodcock, who took second place in the intermediate boys’ race, which will see him represent Greater Manchester in the English Schools Championships in March.

Stefan Kalambouka ran very well to take 10th place in a high-quality field.

Heledd Rimmer was Bury AC’s only competitor in the intermediate girls’ race, running strongly to take 39th position.

For the junior girls Freya Potts ran extremely well to take 11th place, supported by Scarlett Hamilton (35th), Grace Gibson (42nd) and Rebecca Jones (45th).

In the junior boys’ race Luke Gisbourne took a strong 27th place, with Jacob Allen not far behind in 38th.

Reilly Carson showed great form in the minor girls’ race, taking 11th, with the other counters being Katie Rayner (18th), Esther McGrath (38th), Summer Whitfield (41st) and Pearl Porter (68th). For the minor boys, Noah Carter (25th ) and Oliver Horford (33rd) both ran well.

Heaton Park also provided the venue for a Half Marathon on the Sunday, with the undulating course providing a stiff challenge for the competitors.

Bury’s Patrick Babb dealt with the course very efficiently and ran out as winner in a very credible time of 1hr 19mins 44secs.

In fourth place, and first in the M40 category, was Bury men’s team captain Byron Edwards. His time of 1:23:15 indicates that his training is progressing well for his marathon exploits later on in the year.

Ben Coop was the sole Bury competitor in the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10k where he took an excellent fourth place in 34.42.

Five Bury athletes competed at the Sale Indoor Open Meeting at SportCity.

Multi-event athlete Daisy Worthington competed over the 60m hurdles, long jump and shot disciplines, taking third, 10th and fourth places respectively and had a season’s best of 4.96 in the long jump.

Coach Alison Dale made her indoor debut and competed at 200m (34.16 season's best) and 600m (2:10.69 personal best).

Patrick Clarke made his pole vault debut, taking an excellent fifth place in his competition pool with 2.40m.

Hattie Vaughan produced a best vault of 3.30 in her competition to take fifth and also took the same position in her heat of the 60m with a season's best sprint of 8.51.

Brother Gilbert competed in the 600m race and set a new PB of 1.46.22 in taking fifth place.

The previous weekend a large number of junior athletes competed at the Greater Manchester Sportshall Championships at SportCity.

Bury can now count a number of county champions among its membership.

Jerel Livingston once again stole the show, winning the titles in the two-lap race, standing long jump and vertical jump competitions in the u15 boys’ age group.

For the girls in this age group, Amy Garroch won the vertical jump title and finished fourth in the speed bounce and shot competitions.

Jena Dickinson took a silver medal in the u13 girls’ two-lap race and was fifth in the standing long jump.

Grace Gibson won a bronze medal in the six-lap race, one place ahead of Freya Potts, while Erin Garroch won a bronze medal in the speed bounce and took fourth in the vertical jump.

There were excellent performances from Enya Hartley, Millie Uprichard and Esther McGrath. The Bury team also took a bronze in the 4x2 lap relay. The other Bury competitors in this age group were Ellie Hourican Roberts and Holly Crow.

The Bury u13 boys took gold in the 4x2 lap relay. Nathan Witkowski was the stand out individual performer, winning county titles in the two-lap race, the standing triple jump and the vertical jump.

Oliver Horford took a bronze in the four-lap race and secured fifth places in the speed bounce, standing long jump and standing triple jump. Just missing out on individual medals with fourth places were Adam Coxon (two- lap, standing triple jump and shot), Noah Carter (speed bounce and standing long jump) and William Merrick (four-lap).

A total of 15 u11 girls competed with silver medals going to Leah Hancock (vertical jump) and Nyah Coates (standing triple jump).

Sophie Latham took a bronze in the turbo javelin and there were also top-10 performances from Lola Potts (seventh in turbo javelin), Jemima Miles (fifth in vertical jump and 10th turbo javelin), Anna Gisbourne (sixth vertical jump and eighth standing triple jump) and Alina Wilan (ninth in turbo javelin).

The relay team just missed out on a medal in finishing fourth.

The other Bury athletes were Isabel Lawson, Jenna Douglas, Lexi Whelson, Lily Crow, Katie Hearne, Corinne Newton and Isabelle Chadwick.

In the u11s' competition, Jayden Barlow took a bronze in the speed bounce and Nathan Milligan a bronze in the turbo javelin.

Like the girls, the boys took fourth place in the relay. Other top 10 performances came from Finley Collings (eighth in standing long jump), Peter Gardner (fifth in three-lap race and standing triple jump), Euan McGrath (10th in turbo javelin), Kieran Chadwick (sixth in vertical jump and ninth in three-lap race) and Ben Gardner (10th in vertical jump). The other Bury competitors were Tom Gibson, Jake Norton and Thomas Donnelly.

It was excellent to have so many Bury youngsters competing against the best in the county, reflecting the wonderful support from their parents and the great work of the coaches.