AN UP AND coming Wee County runner has racked up an impressive number of medals despite only starting to compete in the sport a year ago.

Alloa's Mirren Henry, 12, trains with the local branch of Central Athletic Club, and took part in one of their cross-country events last month.

Speaking about the race, she told the Advertiser: "They ran us altogether and there was under 11s, under 13s and under 15s, and I was first girl overall."

That impressive result was just one of many that the youngster can add to her list of accomplishments.

Mirren, an S1 pupil at Alloa Academy, won her first race after getting involved in running while in her final year of primary school.

She said: "The first race I won was the Clackmannanshire primary schools' race.

"We did three of them and I was the first girl in all of them – that was maybe a year ago."

Since then, she has gone on to compete in the Clackmannanshire High School cross-country competition too, where she was up against S1 and S2 pupils.

Although she was facing some older runners, she came first overall.

Now, after an impressive cross-country season, she is aiming for a successful spell on the track to get her personal best down in the 800m.

She said: "Last year I didn't have much of a track season, but I did one 800m race for the school and I was first in that.

"That was a year ago, so I think I would do a better time now, but it was 2.42.

"I want to get round about 2.30 for the 800m, and I want to do some 1500m races as well, but I'm focusing on the 800s just now to get some speed."

Despite having some ambitious targets, Mirren claimed she didn't take up the sport for medals, but because she wanted to be more active.

She said: "Well, I started running because I was really lazy, and my dad thought I was doing nothing because I was on my phone all the time and I was just in my room.

"He said I should start going walking or doing some exercise, so I started going walking, like, eight miles.

"I struggled at the start, but I started getting better; I did that twice a week and that was it.

"Then I did two-minute runs to build me up to do longer runs, and then my grandad asked me if I wanted to go to a running club."

When asked about what competitions she has her eye on in the months ahead, Mirren added: "I'd like to do well in the Scottish track and cross-country championships and maybe possibly get a medal – but I don't know, it's hard to get a medal at that."

But, going by Mirren's latest results, that may not be as hard as she believes.