The athletics season has unearthed a potential star of the future amongst the students of Truro High School.
Without any training beyond PE lessons at the top-rated school, 12-year-old Emily Williams, a year 7 pupil, finds herself ranked in the top 10 performing pentathlon athletes for her age group in the UK.
Her most recent successes include winning the County Schools Combined Event with a score more than 300 points ahead of her nearest rival, the County Track and Field Championships and, at the County Athletics Championships, she won the high jump and came second in the 800m. She also won the 800m at the county level Year 7 and 8 championships by over half a lap and came second in the high jump.
Outside school Emily competes in tetrathlon for the Four Burrow Pony Club, last year qualifying to represent the South West in the under 15s age group. She is also a talented netball player and has recently been promoted out of her age group on the county netball squad to the under 14s so she is eligible for selection to the county team.
Emily has been a pupil at Truro High since the age of three and has frequently demonstrated her extraordinary sporting ability. This year, as a member of the senior school, there have been more competitive opportunities and her true potential has emerged.
Head of PE for Truro High School, Kathryn Barbery-Redd, said: "I am really pleased with Emily's commitment to sport. She is an extremely valuable member of many of our school teams, including our hockey team, the current county champions. She has a very unassuming manner and I don't think she herself realises quite the potential she has. She is definitely a name to watch out for in the future – be it in netball, athletics, cross country or tetrathlon.
"As an indication of what she could achieve, we've been working on her high jump technique in the last few days and in just one week Emily has improved her performance from clearing 1.21m to 1.35m. We've encouraged her to join an athletics club because who knows what she could achieve with that extra coaching."
