NIAMH Emerson has earned a Great Britain under-20 combined events call-up – even though she is still only 15.
The Amber Valley & Erewash AC starlet got the call for an indoor international pentathlon in Paris next week after finishing an outstanding second in the England & Wales Under-20 combined events championships in Sheffield.
Her coach, Belper's GB international decathlete David Feeney, felt Emerson had nothing to lose by stepping up to compete in the under-20 event – and how she delivered.
Emerson had only a couple of weeks to train to master the differences in the height and spacing of the hurdles and the weight of the shot at a higher age group than the under-17 category in which she is used to competing.
Starting the day at the EIS Arena with the 60 metre hurdles, she came second in her heat to place 12th overall of the 25 girls – all older than her – who started the competition.
But the second event was the high jump, one of her specialist events, and Emerson leapt clear of the rest of the field, within two centimetres of her personal best, clearing 1.74 metres.
The 903 points she gained from that took her up to second overall.
Next came the shot, not her strongest event, even if she had been throwing the lighter implement, and 7.78m dropped her to seventh overall.
Long jump is one of her improving disciplines, although her run-up still needs honing.
Emerson began with a no-jump, then a poor 5.04m but finished with 5.43m, the fourth best of the day, to stay in contention.
The last event, the 800m, is another of her strengths and there was no stopping the year-11 Alfreton Grange Arts College girl, as she ran a superbly-executed race to record the day's best time, two minutes, 17.62 seconds.
When everything was added up, she had scored 3,632 points to finish only 112 points behind the winner, 18-year-old Ebony Wake, of Birchfield Harriers, and 29 points ahead of Strathclyde University's Emma Canning.
The top three qualify for the international in Paris.
"She emulates, I think, the likes of Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Jessica Ennis and Morgan Lake, who started their international careers by being selected for the GB team for this international while still under-17s," said AV&EAC coach Julie Fenney, David's mother.
"With Niamh being one of the top Under-17 multi-eventers last season, David thought the under-20 event was worth a shot, especially due to the international 'carrot'.
"They only had a couple of sessions to get to grips with the hurdles and shot differences."
