Sophie Hitchon smashed her own UK U20 hammer record in her very first outing of the summer season.

The 18-year-old Blackburn Harrier threw 65.83 metres at the Mansfield Harriers’ Spring Meeting to add more than two and a half metres to the 63.18m she achieved when winning the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships last July.

Her new mark is the longest by a British woman this year, and it lifts her to fifth in the all-time UK senior list. At this rate it can’t be long before she will be gunning for Lorraine Shaw’s British senior record of 68.93m.

The Burnley teenager has recently heard that she is to be honoured by the British Athletics Supporters Club for the outstanding championship performance by a junior female athlete in 2009 after winning her bronze medal in Serbia.

She will receive the Katharine Merry Trophy, which could be presented to her at the Loughborough International.

Sophie is living and training at Loughborough, where she is being coached by University Performance Director Derek Evely.

To compete at Mansfield was an eleventh hour decision as she hadn’t intended to start her season until May, but the throwing is clearly going very well with parents Wendy and Mick, who watched her at Mansfield, reporting that her speed across the circle had markedly increased since last year.

She is currently putting the final touches to her preparations warm weather training in Portugal.