IN-FORM Jess Taylor has 6,000 reasons to look forward to a successful outdoor athletics season.

The former City of York Athletic Club junior has kicked off 2015 in superb fashion - grabbing a silver medal in the pentathlon at the England Combined Events Championship in Sheffield earlier in the month before setting a lifetime best in the discipline when donning Great Britain colours for an international in Apeldoorn, Holland, last weekend.

Taylor, who won a bronze medal for England in the heptathlon at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games last summer, recorded personal bests in the 60 metres hurdles (8.48 seconds), the long jump (6.14 metres) and the 800 metres (2:19.72) as she put up 4,249 points.

That was only bettered by the Czech Republic’s Eliska Klucinova and means Sale Harriers athlete Taylor, who graduated from university last year with a Masters in architecture, has kicked on from her summer exploits.

Her big aim over the next few months is to hit 6,000 points in the heptahlon.

“I was over the moon,” she said of her Apeldoorn adventure.

“I really wanted to get the GB kit on and be selected for this international. I managed to put it all together and I was chuffed. I never thought I would run that 60 metres hurdle time.

“I ran a big PB at Sheffield but they played all this count down music at the start in Apeldoorn and it got me really psyched.”

Asked about a whirlwind 12 months that saw her soar to international recognition, Taylor said: “People were saying ‘happy new year’ but I didn’t want 2014 to end. I got back into training in September so I had a bit of time off. This event in Apeldoorn was my main aim.

“I am now in eighth on the all- time ranking for pentathlon.

“It’s not 100 per cent but I could go to the British Championships in Sheffield in three weeks time and do the hurdles and long jump there.

“That will be the end of my indoor season.”

Taylor isn’t expecting to go on a trip to the European Indoor Championships in Prague in March - “I’m not high enough to get an invite”, she said - but is hoping to have an outside shot at going to the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, in August.

First up, though, will be a multi- event championship in Tenerife and a meeting in Florence in May.

“I would like to go to the World Championships but that is a big ask,” Taylor explained.

“I have got Jess (Ennis-Hill), Kat (Katarina Johnson-Thompson) and Morgan (Lake) in front of me and we are fighting, probably, for three places.

“I will see what happens. If not, I would like to score 6,000 points. I am really happy at the moment. I am ranked fourth in the long jump and seventh or eighth in the hurdles but I really enjoy the heptathlon and the camaraderie.”