Bloor returns to impress with silver medal

Louise Bloor, 26, won a national BBC search for sporting talent when she was just 21. The former Rotherham Harrier was a long jumper and was identified as a future star out of the 5,000 hopefuls who entered the Born to Win competition.

But before her career could take off she suffered a hat-trick of stress fractures in her back. Bloor switched to sprinting on her eventual return to athletics and with a strong winter of training behind her, she claimed the silver medal in the 200m on Saturday by setting personal bests in both the heat and the final.

She then finished sixth in yesterday’s 60m final in a time of 7.52secs.

Her achievement in the 200m does not earn the reward of a trip to Istanbul as that discipline does not feature in the World Championship programme.

Yet after all the upheaval of recent seasons, it was a heartening weekend for an athlete with London 2012 on her mind.

“Born to Win was good but it was a long time ago, a lot has changed since then,” said Bloor, who stopped the clock at 23.74s in the 200m final.

“When I finally got back from injury I decided to switch to sprinting and I’ve been really pushing in the 100m, but I’ve been going better than expected in the 200m and I feel so much stronger in that now.

“I really wanted to break 24 secs in the 200m this year so to do it in the semi-final gave me a big confidence boost to beat it again in the final.

“If anybody had said to me I would be running personal bests in the 200m and 100m over the last year or so, I would never have believed them. It’s a pity the 200m is not an event in Istanbul but it was a good marker and reassuring that I’m getting these times.”

Bloor – who is trained by Toni Minichiello and has a full-time job as head of pastoral care at Maltby Academy – will bid for Olympic qualification in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.