REBECCA White certainly knows she can thrive under pressure at the highest level of international Athletics.

The 21-year-old triple jumper competed in her first European Cup for the Great Britain senior team last weekend and after three no jumps needed to make her final jump count.

She did with 12 metres 82cm -- just two centimetres off her personal best -- and she is piling the pressure on herself again this weekend.

The Haslingden athlete needs 13 metres to reach the qualifying standard for next year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester and is determined to do it in the Under 23 National Championships in Bedford on Saturday where she will compete for her club Sale Harriers.

"It was great to be picked for the GB senior side but after three no jumps, I was panicking a bit," admitted the former Blackburn Harrier, who was called in with Britain's top two triple jumpers Ashia Hansen and Michelle Griffiths injured.

"I knew I just couldn't do a safe jump where I guaranteed I'd get something. I knew I would have to go for it and luckily it paid off.

"I just tried not to think about the pressure!"

Rebecca, also a 100m sprinter and a long jumper, only began focussing on the triple jump properly in September.

She had already developed a liking for it -- but stumbled across her talent for it accidentally when, at the age of 14, she was told she could only go to a Northern Indoor Championship meeting in Sheffield -- where she wanted to compete in the 100m sprint -- if she did another event.

"They said they wouldn't take me if I only did one event as it seemed a waste of time so the triple jump was on the same day so I decided to have a go.

"I ended up breaking the championship record!

"I didn't really do much after that, I just kept it ticking along really but then decided to concentrate on it in September."

She topped the National Rankings with her 12.84 and has, for the last nine months, been training under the watchful eye of coach Darcy Cummings, a Canadian who is jump coach at Bath University, where Rebecca studies.

Since then she has come on, literally, in leaps and bounds and feels the 13 metre mark is well within her capabilities.

"I don't not know what I will do if I get it. When I first got 12.84, I jumped up and down a bit on the track but then it took a few days to sink in.

"It means so much as that should guarantee me the third spot -- behind Ashia and Michelle -- in Manchester.

"They tend to jump over the 15m mark and the world record is higher than that but I have only been training a short time for the event and already I have learnt a lot.

"I used to just turn up, hop skip and jump and hope for the best but now I have learnt more about technique and it has made a difference."

The 13m mark also has another significance -- it means she can start applying for lottery funding which so far she has more-or-less had to do without.

"I get about £1000 a year from UK Athletics but I can start writing off and seeing if I can get more money if I get 13 metres.

"That is the bench-mark for the women's triple jump for financial help so I need to jump it for the money as well.

"I'm also hoping that if I can make an impact on the Great Britain senior team that I can get clothing sponsors and things like that as well."

At the moment, Rebecca is preparing to start a course in BA Coaching Education and Sports Development at Bath in September and is working at the University over the summer to get some cash to finance her studies and sport.

"It is hard but I would never give it up. I enjoy it too much."

And, just to keep the pressure going, once she hits the vital 13m mark, she then has to jump 13.22 to qualify for Great Britain's Under 23 side which are competing in Amsterdam in July.

It's lucky she can handle the pressure.

Anyone who can help Rebecca financially, can contact her grandad Keith on 01706 600512.