By DAVID COULTER david.coulter@hexham-courant.co.uk

Last updated at 11:01, Friday, 03 July 2009

A PRUDHOE athlete has booked herself a place at this month’s European Junior Athletics Championships in Serbia after enjoying national success at the weekend.

Stacey Smith (19), a former pupil at Prudhoe High School, will represent the Great Britain U20 team at this month’s (July) championships after winning the English Championships 1500m on Sunday .

The gold medal guaranteed her participation in Serbia, with the selection policy meaning that only the winner assured a place.

Having won her heat the previous day, and being ranked UK number one at 1500m and 800m, the pressure was on her to confirm her high standing.

But Stacey held her nerve and ran a tactical race in the final itself, despite the steaming hot weather conditions.

From the starting gun, she was asked by her new coach Mick Woods to run the first 400m in 70 seconds, and went through in 69.5 seconds.

Charlotte Purdue, of Aldershot, took the lead at the 800m point but Stacey stayed relaxed and tucked onto her opponent’s shoulder.

Coming onto the final bend and into the home straight, Stacey used her pace acquired from her 800m races to take the lead.

She then sprinted over the finishing line to record a winning time of four minutes and 18 seconds.

Stacey described the achievement as her greatest highlight of her career to date.

She is now looking forward to concentrating all her efforts on preparing for the European Championships.

She said: “It is going to be a great experience and I will make the most of it. I’m sure it will be enjoyable.

“I am now going to focus on training, and Birmingham next weekend will be my only race before Serbia.

“I would love to get a medal, and I will have to work really hard. So, fingers crossed!”

What makes Stacey’s achievements so remarkable is that she gave up the sport back in August 2006 for a period of ten months.

She simply fell out of love with the world of athletics, but has since rekindled the passion.

Since joining On Camp with Kelly (OCWK), a mentoring programme run by Dame Kelly Holmes, Stacey has pushed on and was now more motivated than ever to succeed.

She represented GB U20s at the Loughborough International on May 17, and her successes in 2009 currently see Stacey ranked number two at 1500m and third at 800m in Europe.

Stacey said that she owed a lot of her success to Dame Kelly, who presented Stacey with the gold medal after her win in the English Championships.

She said: “I have come a long way from my performances in 2006-07 and, up to now, I have improved a great deal since joining OCWK in 2007.

“I did give up and she attracted me back to the sport. I couldn’t hack the training because I found it really boring and I don’t think I was in the right mindset.

“I am prepared for everything now and, on the plus side, giving up has shown me how motivated I am and how much I want to succeed in it.”

First published at 09:47, Friday, 03 July 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk