Going for gold at Grosseto

28th July 2017

Sheffield Hallam student Alicia Barrett will go for gold in the 100m hurdles this week at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto, Italy.

Alicia was recently crowned the 100m hurdles British Champion in Birmingham as she stunned the Alexander Stadium crowd to win her event at the World Championships British Team Trials. Alicia's outstanding season has also included recording a new personal best in the hurdles and she is ranked number one in Europe in her age group going into the Championships in Italy. Despite her recent success, Alicia is remaining focused ahead of the games. She said: "It was great to win the British Trials. Before competing I thought I could make silver, so to go one further was fantastic. "I feel good going in to the European Championships. I'd like to think I could get a medal but I'm trying to not think about that too much, I'm just looking forward to competing." The 19-year-old athlete, from Chesterfield, was inspired to take up athletics by her cousins who used to compete, as well as the Olympics in London, where she "was glued to the TV". Alicia now dreams of competing at the Olympics and has targeted Tokyo 2020. As well as being a rising star of British athletics, Alicia has just completed the first year of her history degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Alicia said: "The University and my course tutors have really helped me to make sure I'm getting the most out of studying, while continuing to train and compete. "At one point I was competing four weeks in a row, so that made my studies difficult, but Sheffield Hallam has been really supportive with things like deadlines." The heats for the 100m hurdles take place on Friday morning (20 July) - with the semi-finals on Friday afternoon and the final on Saturday afternoon.