"The A-standard takes the pressure off my mind," said the 20-year-old Burnley athlete, whose athletics career has been on a fast track since she gave up ballet six years ago.

"The last few competitions I possibly tried too hard, but now I can relax and compete to the best of my abilities."

Hitchon (pictured above), who has been training and competing in the United States in the last couple of weeks, bettered her own British record with an effort of 70.40m at Loughborough last month, and raised that to 70.47m at the Mount Sac meeting last Saturday (April 21).

"I feel really good and training out here has gone really well," she said.

"It's just really good to repeat it in competition.

"I love competing – I don't want to be one of those who says 'I'm throwing this in training' but can't reproduce it in competition."


Derek Evely, Hitchon's coach, added:  "She's had a great camp out here in the States and she's been throwing 70-plus daily.

"We just needed to let it happen in competition, and she threw it twice today.

"I think 72 or 73m is not out of the question this year.

"Sophie is a really great competitor and always performs well."

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