Rising athletics star Rhea Southcott, 13, has vowed to achieve her goal of becoming England’s top under-15 competitor in combined events and pentathlon by the end of next season, despite an injury setback.

Southcott, who lives in Baildon, broke her left arm in two places during hurdles training but is making a good recovery and has resumed light training.

She flew the Yorkshire flag in fine style in the England Athletics’ combined events championships in Sheffield last month, achieving four personal bests from five events alongside the best under-15 athletes in the country.

Within two months of joining her current age category, Rhea has climbed to 14 in the country in the pentathlon. This is off the back of a UK ranking of four in the under-13s.

On her mission to reach the top spot in the UK under-15 rankings within the next 18 months, she said: “This is achieveable with hard work.”

In last month’s South Yorkshire four-match series she finished an impressive second among 95 competitors, many of them a year or more older. Southcott had accumulated enough points to take the runners-up slot, despite her injury preventing her from taking part in the final event of the series.

“I’m determined not to allow this injury to be anything more than a temporary setback,” added Southcott, who plans to travel to a club pre-season training camp in Portugal later this month.