'I can go faster'

NAT WHITTY has admitted that breaking the island 1,500m women's record at Footes Lane came as 'something of a shock'.

Whitty, pictured, became the fastest Guernsey woman ever over the metric mile, clocking 4min. 29.0sec. to take almost 3sec. off her best and better Sarah Mercier's time of 4-31.74, which was run in Solihull last July.

Whitty's achievement comes despite the fact that she is focusing mainly on the 400m and 800m, the two disciplines that she is running at this summer's NatWest Island Games.

But after clocking the hugely-impressive time over the longer distance, she admitted that it has given her extra confidence to kick on in a vital year.

'I am not really focusing on the 1500 at the moment, only doing a couple of races, but I plan to probably step up to doing 800 and 1,500 in the next couple of years, so I think I can lower that record further,' she said.