In-form Isla Pain has been rewarded for some standout performances by being selected to represent Great Britain for the first time.

The 17-year-old, who competes for Cheltenham Harriers, will take part in the high jump at the European Athletics Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, next week.

“I’m very happy, I can’t believe it, it’s pretty cool,” said the Pates Grammar School pupil.

The high jump is just one of many disciplines at which Isla excels because, first and foremost, she is a heptathlete.

And she’ll be heading to Finland full of confidence after a stunning performance in the heptathlon at the England Athletics Under-20 Championships in Birmingham at the weekend when she smashed her personal best in four of the disciplines, including the high jump. Her points tally of 4,821 was also a PB.

The high jump was her standout performance as she cleared 1.82 metres, smashing the club record in the process.

It also moved her straight to number one in the UK Under-20 rankings in her first year of the age group.

Not only that, she is the only athlete to make the European qualifying standard and she is now second only to 28-year-old Morgan Lake in the high jump outdoors in this country.

Isla began the heptathlon with a PB in the 100 metres hurdles of 14.71 seconds, finishing second and ranking 16th in the UK in the individual event.

After the high jump she threw 9.34m in the shot before setting a further PB in the 200m of 26.31 seconds..

Day two saw Isla equal her PB in the long jump with 5.27m, set a PB in the javelin of 25.88m before finishing the competition with two minutes, 33.53 seconds in the 800m to end second overall behind Matilda Quick, from Wales, and English national champion.

Now all eyes turn to Finland with Isla flying out on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s qualifying round. The final is on Sunday.

It is the first time that Isla will compete abroad and her mum Hayley said: “It’s unbelievable, it’s totally overwhelming, I’ll definitely be in tears when she competes for Great Britain for the first time.”

Isla has a busy schedule because at the beginning of September she’ll be representing England in the heptathlon against the other home countries in Belfast.

Isla admits that the high jump is her favourite discipline – “That’s the one I’m best at, so that helps,” she said – so does she think there will come a time when she focuses only on the high jump?

“It might happen but definitely not yet,” she said. “I consider myself a heptathlete, I really enjoy doing seven events.”