BROMSGROVE & Redditch AC's racewalker Sharon Tonks recently spent a week training with in Italy with their National squad at a small town south of Turin.

National Coaches Sandro and Giorgio Damillano put Sharon and Dudley & Stourbridge athlete Katherine Horwell through an exhausting twice daily programme on both flat and mountain courses, totalling over 140km during the week.

Last Sunday, a week after returning, the pair lined up as rivals in Tamworth in the multi-county Championships in a three-lap twisting and hilly circuit. Tonks was leader after the first lap, but Horwell took over in the second. The race finished with Howell first in a time of 24m and Tonks second in 24m 10s.

Next week both athletes travel to the Isle of Man to contest the Manx 20km Grand Prix.