Features

With Britain currently engulfed in Olympic fever after the London's successful bid to host the 2012 games, the focus now shifts to the future stars of athletics who will represent our country at the event.

Emily Pidgeon in action in the 3,000 metres

16 year old Emily Pidgeon, from Shurdington in Gloucestershire, could well be one of our Olympic hopefuls at London 2012 if she continues to mature as a middle distance runner.

Already regarded as an athlete with tremendous potential - some are calling her the 'new Paula Radcliffe' - Emily visited BBC Gloucestershire to talk about her career so far as well as her plans for the future:

What does it mean to you, a young athlete, to have the Olympic games here in this country?

It's absolutely amazing, for it to be in my home country is amazing. I watched the Commonwealth Games, which was in Manchester, and seeing all the crowd support, listening to them sing the national anthem - I'd love that to happen for me.

According to those in the know, you've got a chance of standing on the podium at just such an event one day ...

That's my ultimate goal. If it's London, with the crowd behind me, the motivation would be so great.

What's your plan as far as Olympic games are concerned, because the next one is Beijing in 2008 ...

Well I'm not sure about Beijing because I'll only be 18 so I might be a bit young but definitely London 2012. That would probably be the perfect year for me and maybe the one after that. London would probably be the best year for my career.

Emily Pidgeon - the new Paula Radcliffe?

At 16 how do you look ahead to your career and who works with you?

My coach David Farrow does most of that for me but we don't look too far ahead. We just plan the year as it comes and then we see what happens. If I do really well I do a few more races or if I'm doing not so well then we focus on the training. We only plan the year ahead - we don't plan too far ahead because I'm only young!

And you've just finished your GCSEs haven't you?

I've just done nine GCSEs and they went quite well.

How've you managed to revise and keep training as well?

My Mum locked me up in my room just to make sure I got the hours in but it all fitted in quite well so hopefully I'll have done okay. The training went well too so it's all going well this year.

So what inspired you to get into running?

When I was in Year Three I started running for the Richard Pates School cross country team in the Cheltenham Primary Schools cross country. I came about 50th in that - this was against up to Year Six. David, my coach, saw that I was determined to do well and he liked that quality so he asked me to come and train with him. I did one session, absolutely loved it and carried on.

You were spotted at an early age but what do you think can be done to get more young people interested in sports?

I think it needs to be encouraged in schools because not many schools focus on sport, particularly athletics. I think sport would need to be a big centrepiece in schools, I think that way children would become more interested and would hopefully take up more sports. If your school doesn't do much sport then you've got no way to get into it.

Emily in the World Cross Country Championships

Let's talk about your year so far. It's gone very well in the cross country hasn't it?

Yes it did. I did lots of domestic races and they all went very well. Then I did the world cross in March in France and came 20th. That was very, very good.

What did you get out of that experience that you can take on into the rest of your career?

I'd never raced Africans before so that was a big experience, racing them. My sport is dominated by Africans and they're very hard to beat. You have to put in a lot of hard work to beat them.

What's your next target then?

My main aim of this season is the European Juniors, which is in Lithuania, and I'll be doing the 5,000 metres there. I'm very excited about that. That's at the end of July.

We're talking about your events here, you've done the 3,000m, 5,000m and the steeple chase - why the steeple chase?

I've always liked to try new things and the steeple chase is always fun. I love the 3,000m but it isn't an Olympic distance and the only way to do it is to do the steeple chase. I've always loved it because I like doing obstacle courses and things. So to jump over the barrier is always fun. It's really just to keep my options open for the future.

What would be the event you eventually look towards?

Probably the longer distances because I think I'm better at those ones. So maybe the 5,000m and 10,000m. But at the moment I'm keeping my options open with lots of different distances but ultimately I think the 10,000m.

Emily with cousin Anna, who works at BBC Glos!

What about the marathon one day?

Well ... hmm, I'm hoping not to try that! I think it would be a good experience. I'm hoping to do the London Marathon, I think that would be amazing, but I'm not sure about doing it seriously.

A lot of people do give you this label as the 'new Paula Radcliffe' or the 'Paula in waiting', how do you cope with that level of expectation and pressure?

Luckily I've never really let the pressure get to me. It's very flattering being called the 'new Paula Radcliffe' but it's a bit of a high expectation to live up to. I haven't let the pressure get to me too much so that's good.

How do you decide on a career because, in sport, you never know with injuries. Have you got a reserve plan?

To be honest I haven't really thought about it at all. I've no idea.

You haven't got a burning ambition to be a doctor or a journalist or something like that?

I'd love to be on the television, to do commentating like Sue Barker - that would be really good.