HARRY Maslen produced a battling performance to win the silver medal in the England under-20 Combined Events Championships in Bedford at the weekend.

The Ilkley decathlete’s efforts in the ten disciplines also saw him crowned as the Northern Combined Events champion.

Maslen got off to a good start on the first day with three personal best performances in the 100m (11.26), shot (13.15m) and 400m (50.15).

A strong performance in the long jump saw him leap 6.53m and a clearance at 1.88m in high jump saw him finish the day with 3,688 points – 200 clear of second place.

A personal best in his 110m hurdles (15.45) and a good discus 35.19m gave him a good start to the second day.

Pole Vault is normally an event that he would expect to pick up 500-600 points but he failed to clear any height and that scuppered his chance of taking the championship title.

It also dropped him back to fourth place but he responded in the best possible way by producing two of the most amazing performances of his young career.

In the javelin he beat his personal best by more than five metres with 51.89 and he took 16 seconds off his previous best with 4:38.98 for the 1500m.

It meant he finished the event with 6,355 points and secured second place.

This was his first competitive decathlon of the season and showed that all the winter training under the guidance of Sam Stanislaus is starting to pay dividends.