SOPHIE Riches admitted she was “petrified” as she stood on the start line for her 1,500m in the UK School Games at the Olympic Stadium.

But she showed little in the way of nerves as she controlled the race and finished way ahead of the field in a time of 4m 26.74s.

The 16-year-old FitzWimarc School pupil said: “I couldn’t believe I was there, in the Olympic Stadium. I was stood there and was so nervous, you could see it in my face. I was petrified in fact!”

The nerves were gone almost instantly as Riches sat in behind second-placed Abbie Hetherington as the two built up an unassailable lead.

Then, with 500m to go, the European Youth Olympic 1,500m champion made her move and never looked back.

“I didn’t really have a plan beforehand,” she said. “I just decided to sit in and work hard but I was feeling really good.”

Riches says she knew she was in good shape before the start of the race.

Despite being away as part of the England South East team for three days, she was sent a training schedule by coach and current Southend United midfielder Christian Dailly – and felt great when running the sessions.

“Training had gone really well and I was feeling good after doing the session that Christian sent me and that gave me confidence,” she said.

And that confidence was well placed as Riches looked a class apart in the field and posted the fastest 1,500m time by an under-17 woman in the country this year.