BLIND athlete, Kirsty Hunter broke her own national long jump record, and came first in two different championships last weekend.

And she did without specialist jumping spikes but instead used six-year-old running shoes.

Kirsty, aged 20, broke her own British long jump record, set in Poland last year, at the British Blind Sports Combined Championships at Nuneaton on Saturday with a leap of 4m75.

Kirsty's 2001 British record of 4.67 was set at the Senior European Blind Championship in Poland, when she came seventh in her first senior international competition. Her success continued when she won the 100m in a new championship record time of 13.6sec.

She narrowly missed breaking her own record yet again when she competed the following day at Wigan in the Disability Sport England Area Championships qualifying competition for the DSE Nationals at Blackpool in July.

Kirsty who lives in Cottam, is a student at the University of Central Lancashire and a member of Wigan Harriers.

She is coached at Preston Sports Arena by former Northern Triple Jump record holder, Caroline Warden, who is a member of Preston Harriers.