GB athletics prodigy Boffey vows to set 2019 alight

In a year that saw the 18-year-old 800m athlete make her senior debut, Boffey admitted to feeling intimidated on the big stage as she raced against World Indoor bronze medallist Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Athletics World Cup silver medallist Adelle Tracey.

But the Enfield & Haringey runner says she couldn't have been more delighted to compete against Britain's best and brightest 800m athletes, despite being the youngest in the field.

"I thought it was such a good competition," she said. "I went in and I wasn't ranked very highly at all but it was such a good experience before the World Juniors and it gave me a taste of what a bigger Championship would be like.

"It was actually quite intimidating going up against someone like Shelayna but the more I do it the more it'll become like she's just another person to race against.

"That's the motivation that I can use to get my times up and hopefully beat those sorts of athletes.

"At this point it's just about learning from their experiences and I'm happy to be in that kind of a race because I can pick up things from them that will take me round."

Boffey had the chance to perfect her big-race mentality when she competed at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland in July.

And despite missing out on a medal in the competition as she departed at the semi-final stage, Boffey – who achieved a new 800m personal best of 2:04.00 earlier this season – is hoping to use her disappointment as a force for good.

She said: "I'm very happy with the fact I got a PB because it shows that I'm getting faster every year, but I would have liked to have done better towards the end of the season.

"At the start of the year I was really positive but I've used the end of the season as a big learning curve and hopefully I can push on from it.

"What happened at World Juniors wasn't what I wanted, but it's about recovering from that and putting in better performances at the end of, and throughout the season next year. Hopefully some big successful wins will come next season."

Sportsbeat 2018