Meadows sees bright future for up-and-coming Brits

By Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat

JENNY Meadows officially brought the curtain down on another memorable year at the UKA Awards Dinner on Saturday but remains adamant that her - and others' - best is yet to come.

HEROES' RECEPTION: World and European 800m bronze medallist Jenny Meadows pictured with the UKA Heroes

Meadows battled ankle and calf injuries to add European 800m bronze to her world equivalent this summer having started the season by winning world indoor silver.

The 29-year-old has also upped her role as ambassador of the UKA Heroes project, sponsored by Original Source, casting her eye over 15 up-and-coming athletes.

Sprinter Jodie Williams was the pick of the bunch claiming world junior gold and silver - being joined in Canada by triple jumper Ben Williams, Steve Cram-coached Laura Weightman and Shaunna Thompson.

Throwers Sarah Holt and Izzy Jeffs travelled to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games while Paralympian Hollie Arnold has earned selection for January's IPC World Athletics Championships in New Zealand.

And Meadows believes 2011 can be a productive year for not only herself but likes of Williams and co as well.

She said: "I am really please with everything at the moment.

"I am so lucky in that I feel like a lot of the hard work I have done over the last few years has really paid off now and I have a really good base of everything.

"That means that I can now just work on some of the smaller things and fine tune little details and really try and get my times down.

"And in terms of the heroes - they have done really well - obviously Jodie stands out and gets a lot of attention but she has had a fantastic year.

"Laura has had a fantastic year, she is developing really well and ran some great times last year and the thing I love about her is the grittiness.

"And someone like Shaunna who has struggled with injuries like I have I can relate to tell and tell her that it can work out for the best."

As well as offering a friendly face Meadows presented the UKA Heroes class of 2010 with a second cheque of £500 for the year at the glittering awards ceremony in the Midlands.