Up-and-coming sprinter Ella Edwards has made a quick-fire start to 2025.

The 18-year-old recently won a silver medal in the under-20 60 metres at the England Athletics Indoor Championships - her first national medal – and she’s got plenty to look forward to over the coming weeks and months.

The outdoor season is just about to get under way when Edwards will be hoping to make a big impact in both the 100 and 200 metres before flying out to the US in August to take up a placement at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

The ex-Hartpury College student, who runs for Gloucester Athletic Club, has been awarded a scholarship in track and field as a National Collegiate Athletic Association  Division One athlete.

That sounds pretty impressive, and it is.

“Division One is for all the top athletes,” said her coach Justin Smith, a South African who lives in Gloucester.

“It’s a different level, the best of the best will go on to the Olympics, if you’re the best of the best you are very good.”

Edwards will live in the US for four years – she will study as well! – and Smith continued: “The goal was always to get her out to the US and put her in a system that will take her further, it’s a great opportunity for her, she’s a clever girl.”

The one-time Barnwood Park School pupil has always been a top runner having joined Gloucester AC at the age of 11.

“Initially she was a multi-eventer but she was always super talented in the sprints,” said Smith.

“She used to come over to the sprint coaches and do some extra training when she was 12 and a year later, just after Covid, she came over to us permanently.

“She’s always wanted to get from A to B as quickly as possible.

“Generally the sprint coaches don’t take runners until late under-15s but we spotted she was a special talent.”

Smith and his fellow coaches were absolutely right, of course, and over the years she has been smashing club records, setting personal bests and winning regional titles for fun.

“She’s really developed over the past six years, she’s very resilient, she’s gone from strength to strength,” added Smith.

And it all came together when she won that silver medal at the national indoor championships in Sheffield at the start of February.

“That was fantastic,” said Smith, “She’d been in national finals before and gone close to winning a medal without actually winning one.

“She’s had a very good indoor season and set a new personal best in the semi-final of 7.51 seconds.”

She was only slightly slower in the final – she ran 7.53 – and it’s fair to say that there is plenty more to come.

Edwards is 5ft 3in, and Smith said: “She’s very compact, she’s a very strong, explosive athlete.

“Her strength is her explosiveness at the start but she’s got phenomenal leg speed, right up there with the best in the world.

“If you’re not competing with her after 50 metres, good luck!”

Smith believes Edwards is not far off qualifying for the major championships in the 60 metres and he also believes there is plenty of room for her to improve as a 100 and 200 metres runner.

The upcoming outdoor season will provide her with plenty of opportunities and Smith said: “Can we get an England vest this summer, possibly in the 100 metres relay or the individual?”

That would be some achievement if she did – she’s also targeting a GB under-20 vest both indoor and outdoor – and Smith is certainly hopeful.

Her PB for the 100 is 12.01 seconds and 25.35 in the 200, and Smith continued: “We know she can be competitive. Mentally, she’s extremely strong, she understands the sport.”

Edwards is set to run in the UK Athletics Championships in Birmingham at the start of August when she will be up against the likes of Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith.

Both are Olympians and Smith said: “That will be a great experience for her.”

A week earlier the plan is for Edwards to compete in the England Athletics Under-20 Championships, also at Birmingham, where she’ll be a medal contender, so she’s going to be very busy almost right up to the day she leaves for the US.

Edwards lives in Gloucester and is enjoying a gap year but Smith has no worries about her settling in the US.

“There will be a mixture of excitement and nerves, but I think more excitement,” he said. “I don’t think she’ll be homesick, she just loves to do her own thing.

“She’s a very friendly, interactive person, she’ll make friends. I think she’ll have a ball.”

Smith will obviously be a lot less involved in her career once she moves away but his main aim is to see her thrive.

“She will have a new coach but she will still come home in the holidays,” he said. “You never lose that relationship.”