Racewalker Sharon Tonks is heading to Italy to train with one of the sports all-time greats.

The Bromsgrove & Redditch AC athlete will link up with rival Katherine Horwell, of Stourbridge Harriers, before flying to Turin next week to train with the Italian national squad. The girls will train twice a day under the eye of Maurizio Damilano, Olympic 20km gold medallist of the 1980s.

Tonks jets off after two strong displays. On January 23 she competed at Cardiff Indoor Arena where she lapped the field to win the 15-lap 3km race in 14.12 mins.

She then faced Horwell in the Midland 3km at Birmingham's NIA on Saturday. After a chaotic start, the pair settled into very fast even lapping with Horwell grabbing victory with an indoor pb of 13.57 followed by Sharon in second place in 14.09.