HAVING discovered the triple jump is an event she appears to have taken to like a duck to water, Bolton United Harrier Georgia Lever’s rapid progress was underlined by her appearance representing England North at the Welsh Athletics International.

The event, held in Cardiff, is a competition between the retrospective champions England North, England South, England Midlands, Wales, and a Welsh National schools team.

 It was a close affair throughout but all of the athletes were down on their best performances, possibly due to the English Schools’ Championships at Bedford the weekend before.

Georgia’s best jump came out at 11.27m, which earned the Blue Vest third place, behind the ESAA champion and the Welsh champion, so it is a result she can be happy with.

Though primarily a jumper, Lever also competes in 100m sprint events at Youth Development League and senior level for the Harriers, as well as being an integral member of the 4x100m relay squad, so she jumped at the chance to compete in the sprint relay.

Georgia ran the first leg and did not disappoint with a faultless handover.

The rest of the team, all sub-12 second runners, went on to smash the opposition by more than a second. It was a fitting end to a long day for Georgia, who will surely be seen in an England vest again.

Her club-mate Hannah Kelly, the Harriers’ sprinting golden girl, once again competed for England at the Schools International Athletic Board’s international.

She flew out with the England team from Birmingham, accompanied by many of her Greater Manchester team-mates after many sterling performances from the team at last week’s English Schools’ National Championships.

This year’s meeting in Dublin pitted the two best u17s athletes from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in each event.

Hannah once again lined up in her favoured 200m and was cheered on by numerous family members who had travelled from England and Ireland to support her.

As ever, Hannah ran a fantastic bend and smashed the 25-second barrier yet again to finish in a fantastic third place in 24.59secs, 0.6 seconds quicker than her time from the previous year. The winner was Kiah Dubarry-Gray, who clocked 24.13.

Irish athlete Rhasidat Adeleke finished second.

It was Hannah’s second international bronze medal after her debut in the same event last year and came despitethe quality of the field being much stronger this time around and she clocked an incredible 0.6 seconds quicker.

The England team followed this up with a solid silver medal in the 4x100m relay with Hannah running a blistering second leg.

Hannah will now focus on running in the 100m in the Northern Athletics Championships in Leigh.