Emily Field is one of the new breed of runners who is thriving in the go-ahead junior set-up at Bourton Roadrunners.

The youth section was originally established by club stalwart Norman Lane, who handed over the reins to Richard Bufton and Chris Hartley five years ago.

Richard, whose son Daniel runs “now and again” for the club’s under-15s when he’s not at football training at Northleach, modestly insists that Hartley is “the driving force” behind the operation.

“Other people help as well like Daryl Kiey-Thomas,” said Richard, who is a retailer in Stow-on-the-Wold. “We’re very lucky. Cotswold School let us use their land on Tuesday evenings for training and it’s fantastic.

“We used to take the kids out training on the road and it was a nightmare but now we can use the school’s facilities, it’s so much better.”

The club have got around 100 youngsters from under-11 through to under-17 on their books and Richard reckons about 60-70 turn up for training on Tuesday nights. It’s very cheap to join the junior set-up, too, with annual membership costing just £5.

“We’re mainly cross-country based,” said Richard. “We do time trials and in the summer we do athletics. One week we’ll have a short training session and the next week we’ll have a long session to build up speed and stamina.”

Richard has high hopes for under-15 runner Field. The Chipping Campden School pupil, who lives in Moreton-in-Marsh, has been at the club for the past three years and has, says Richard, “got better and better and stronger and stronger”.

She will be looking to continue the form that this year has seen her compete in all of the Gloucestershire League races where she got a bronze medal for coming third overall.

She also ran in the Gloucestershire Schools’ Championships at Cheltenham where she came second and at Newent where she finished fifth.

She was 39th in the British Athletics Cross Challenge in Cardiff, 38th in the South West Schools’ Championships at Truro and 216th in the English Schools’ Championships at Norwich.

She also came first in the 1k Pendock Spring Chicken run.

So how far could she go in the sport?

“That depends on her,” said Richard, “She’s got a beautiful running style. She’s one of those rare people who looks totally effortless when she runs.

“She goes like the clappers but just flows over the ground. When she puts her mind to it she is very good.”

Richard was born in Sheffield, a city that played a big part in the development of one of the world’s greatest runners in Seb Coe. While Richard, who has lived in the Cotswolds for the past 30 years, was nowhere near Coe’s level – who was? – he was no mean runner himself and was a regular competitor in the Cheltenham 10k back in the day.

One of the people he found himself up against was 1988 Olympic modern pentathlon bronze medallist Graham Brookhouse. “At his best he would slaughter me,” laughed Richard.

“I used to run a lot but I’m much slower now and I’ve got a lot of aching joints. Age does catch up with you.”

That’s not something Emily has to worry about just yet!