PERSHORE schoolgirl Katrina Hart is certainly quick off the mark. Just a year after taking up sprinting she has run away with a top honour in European athletics.
Katrina, aged 15 and a pupil at Pershore High School, has cerebral palsy and came third in the 100 metres final of the disabled European Athletics Championships for adults.
She was the youngest British competitor at the games, held in Helsinki last month, and amazed herself and her family by taking the bronze medal. She is also in the running for a place in the British paraolympic team for Beijing in 2008.
Katrina, who lives near Feckenham, is a dedicated footballer and has a 100 per cent attendance record at Redditch United FC. Last year, the PE teacher, a former British pentathlete, at her old school - Bowbrook - thought she had the potential to be a runner.
So Katrina started taking the first steps towards a new interest and unexpected success by training with her teacher and a few others. She now goes to the gym and trains with her older sisters Nicola and Laura as well as at Worcester Athletics Club.
Despite an eye operation last December and a subsequent complication, which disrupted her training for longer than two months, Katrina won the county competition and then went on to success at national level before being selected for the British team to take part in Helsinki. She has also been spotted by UK Athletics and put in the prospective British team for the Beijing paraolympics.
Katrina said: "I had no idea what the competition would be like in Helsinki. I was amazed to come third. Nobody expected me to get a medal. I would love to go to the Olympics and get a medal"
Over the past year athletics have taken her all over the country as well as to Spain, Germany and Finland.
Her mum Celia said: "I was astounded when she came third in Helsinki because she didn't start the race well. She goes all over the country with training and competitions. And, although she has difficulties, she is determined to get to Beijing and then London in 2012."
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