NATASHA Smith is making great strides.

The 15-year-old Stroud High School pupil has built on her athletic achievements of last year.

Her outdoor season got off to a flying start started in May at the Gloucestershire County Championships at the Prince of Wales Stadium in Cheltenham, which she won with a jump of 1.70m.

Her winning streak continued at the South West Schools Championships in Exeter, where she topped the U17 category with a jump of 1.74.

This was a personal best for the Stroud AC teenager, who also broke the championship record, placing her fourth in the national outdoor rankings.

A week later she competed in Yeovil in the SW Schools combined events and came second in her age group qualifying for the English Schools national finals.

In doing so she achieved a personal best of 4488 points with individual bests in five of the seven events.

She then had a mid-season break and resumed competition in August at the combined events in Bedford and became Midland champion in the U17 girls heptathlon and 10th nationally.

A week later she added the high jump gold medal to her collection at the Midlands championships in Birmingham beating several girls who were in the upper year of the age group.

Natasha also represented the South West Athletics Academy in Belgium at the Antwerp Gala.

She said: “It was exciting to compete in an international competition and a great experience.”

The high jump season culminated in the national championships in Bedford at the end of August, where she won a silver medal with a jump of 1.73, improving on her bronze medal in the same competition last year.

She added: “This achievement was really the highlight of my season.”

Her final competition was the English Schools Combined Events championships in Bedford where she finished in 10th position in the U17 girls’ heptathlon.