Sophie Hitchon has won the Leg Rogerson Trophy for the best performance by a Lancashire Athlete in 2008.

The 17-year-old Blackburn Harrier was presented with the award at the recent AGM of the Lancashire AA.

Sophie broke the UK Record for the U17 hammer numerous times during 2007, and continued her rapid improvement this season in her first year as an U20.

She improved by more than six metres to progress from 54.56m to 60.73m to break the UK Record in her new age bracket too.

She is only eight metres behind this season’s leading senior Zoe Derham (68.63m) with the UK senior record standing to Lorraine Shaw at 68.93m.

The highlight of Sophie’s year was finishing seventh in the World Junior Championships at Bydgoszcz in Poland and she was also named Burnley’s Rising Star by the local sporting community.