Bury AC's 800m star Anna Gisbourne made her England senior debut at the International Flanders Athletics Meeting at the Flanders Sports Arena in Gent, Belgium on Saturday.
Running in the second race, Anna,16, was drawn in the outside lane which she shared with another athlete. At the gun she almost found herself being buffeted off the track but stuck to the task and followed the leaders.
It was however a very physical race, with Anna being forced to run in the second lane for all of the race, creating additional distance to cover. At the bell she bravely fought to get to the front, but had to settle for third place behind Fillipou - the winner from Cyprus.
Anna’s time of 2mins 09.23secs is a season’s best and was very creditable given the circumstances of the race.
Another young Bury athlete demonstrating great potential is 13-year-old combined events specialist Oliver Cooper who took part in the Northern Athletics Junior Indoor Track and Field Championships in Sheffield on Sunday.
Oliver took part in the U15 boys 60m hurdles and pole vault competitions.
He produced an excellent series of vaults, improving his personal best to 3.30m to secure the gold medal. The performance currently places Oliver as number two in the UK for event in his age category. In his 60m hurdles heat he set a new PB of 9.69 to take third place.
A number of the club’s younger athletes competed at the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Competition held at Heaton Park on Saturday.
In the year 5/6 girls race, Bury took the silver medal with great performances from Kathryn Wolstenholme and Claudia Chapman. Kathryn ran particularly strongly to take fifth place.
In the year 5/6 boys, Ethan Statham produced another excellent performance to finish in second place. In the year 7 girls race, Ella Straffon-Finch took 10th place with Lois Green producing a brave run, after losing a shoe, to finish in the pack.
In the junior girls race, Lucy Dent, competing for her home town of Rochdale took an excellent seventh place which qualifies her for the English Schools competition. Agatha Wragg finished a little further down the field.
The club’s other competitors included Jakub Purzycki and Oscar Armstong.
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