JESSICA Hopkins continued her climb up the list in the pantheon of the UK’s top young multi-discipline athletes as the Witham youngster closed her season with another superb heptathlon performance at the English Schools Combined Events Championships in Boston.

In securing 5,050 points the 15-year-old Maltings Academy pupil, who has just concluded her first year at under-17 level, rose up the UK all-time rankings from 16th to ninth in her age group and now sits third in the list of best-ever performances by a 15-year-old.

Hopkins was delighted to finish her season with another strong display as she finished the competition fourth against older athletes and her score now puts her only 90 points behind that achieved by current Olympic heptathlon star Katarina Johnson-Thompson at a similar age.

The Witham youngster’s performance has also earned her a chance to represent England in international action in Glasgow on November 10.

She said: “I’m very pleased with my performances and cannot wait to compete for England again for the second year running.

“None of this would be possible without the help from back on form for my sports massage treatments, my coaches Steve Mitchel and Sarah Besford and of course friends and family for the ongoing support and encouragement.”

Hopkins’ first event on day one in Boston was the 80 metre hurdles, which she ran in a personal best (PB) time of 11.85 seconds and followed that with a high jump where she equalled her PB of 1.68m.

The shot putt saw her I throw a distance of 13.61m and Hopkins finished the day with a 26.55s run in the 200m, which was another PB that gave her a total of 3,167 points.

Yet another PB kickstarted day two as Hopkins leapt 5.75m in the long jump, before a throw of 31.84m in the javelin and the last event of the weekend, the 800m, where she ran a season’s best of two minutes 37.90 seconds to secure fourth place as the highest-placed year one athlete in the under-17s.