JOAN MacPherson will be seeking her second international athletics vest to reward a pleasing winter training schedule.

The Basingstoke and Mid-Hants throwing star has trimmed her body weight by one-and-a-half stone to a new 15st 1lb.

Her close-season training has included much work with heavy weights to increase her power in the shot and discus.

Her back problems of last season, which affected her run-up to the Commonwealth Games trials, are now behind her, thanks to the work of a personal fitness trainer at Basingstoke Sports Centre.

"I'm training hard and I'm now leaner, meaner and faster," the former Brighton Hill schoolgirl said. "I'm really looking forward to the year ahead."

In her first year of senior competition, she has been selected for the AAA national indoor championships at Birmingham on March 1 and 2 which serve as world indoor trials.

MacPherson, who graduated from Brunel University last summer and is now doing a post-graduate teaching certificate at Reading University, and will be contesting the British Universities indoor title in Birmingham next month for her new university.

If she is successful in the AAA championships, the British throwing squad member hopes to make it into the British team later in the month for a triangular match in Germany, in which Croatia will be the third competing nation.

MacPherson gained her first GB vest in France last year when she was fifth in the discus competition.

Another seasonal aim is to get into the national outdoor team for the world student championships in Beijing.