Sophie Hitchon has smashed the United Kingdom U20 women's hammer record in only her second meeting of the season.
With the track and field league season still weeks away, athletes are just beginning to take part in warm-up meetings as part of their final preparations, yet Hitchon (pictured below) has already set the UKA qualifying mark for the World Junior Games, which will take place in Poland this summer.
Last season she set a succession of UK records at U17 level, ending the year with a personal best of 54.56 metres, but amazingly, she has added more than five metres already.
In her first contest she threw 55.10m on a cold night in Boston, Lincolnshire, but then on Saturday she achieved 59.74 metres at a UK Hammer squad meeting in Birmingham.
That erased Rachel Beverley's 1998 mark of 57.97m from the record books.
She backed this throw up with another over 58 metres, and then the following day at Blackpool almost broke the record again with 59.49m the pick of another consistent series.
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What makes Sophie's success even more staggering is that she is still only 16-years-old, and doesn't turn 17 until July. That means that she has just moved into the U20 ranks and will have three full seasons to try and extend her record further.
This has been her first proper winter of training following the tragic death of her previous coach and now she is travelling to Hull to train under the former Commonwealth Games thrower Dave Smith, where she has been working on a major technical adjustment adding a fourth rotation to her routine to generate more speed.
She has also enjoyed regular weekends away with the UK Hammer squad and trained at Blackburn Harriers under her father Mick.
Having learned her trade at Pendle Athletic Club, she made the switch to Blackburn in October to find a higher level of competition, and will be free to compete for her new club next month after serving the obligatory suspension period.
After winning promotion to Division One of the Northern Senior League for the first time in their history, the Harriers will be delighted to have her on board.
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