ABIGAIL Davies has overcome a long battle with injury to become 60m South West champion for the first time, writes Talia Jones.

The Southampton Solent University student has moved up the U23 rankings to 12th in the UK and is just outside the top 100 in all age groups.

Davies, 20, who was competing for Southampton Athletics Club, breezed through her semi-final in the Grand Prix Series in Cardiff.

She left the rest of her heat trailing in her wake with a time of 7.94 seconds, beating her closest opponent by nearly half a second, to set up a hotly-contested battle with Yvette Westwood.

Davies, originally from Bath, went into the final as narrow favourite over Yate and District’s Westwood, despite fracturing one ankle and spraining the other just 12 months earlier.

She came through with flying colours, matching her time from the previous round, and pipping fierce rival, Westwood, to the line by just 0.02 of a second.

The third year Sports Journalism student admits the recovery has been tough but being a part of the High Performance Academy at Solent has encouraged her to come back stronger: “The rehab process took a year because I heavily damaged my ankle, so much so that I couldn’t walk at one point.

“But HPA and Solent have been amazing, helping me every step of the way to get back to doing what I love best and winning medals.”

Davies is also Midland Champion and Welsh Champion at 60m, as well as Captain of the Solent Athletics Team.

The multi-talented athlete also competes in Bobsleigh, and her overwhelming speed on the track has catapulted her into the Team GB squad hoping to make it to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.