SOUTHEND High School for Girls athletics captain Georgia Atkins made a solid start in her bid to add to her considerable recent successes in Finland yesterday.

Competing in the heats of the 100 metres hurdles at the European Youth Olympics Festival, Atkins won through to today’s semi-finals with a time of 14.01 secs.

That put her second behind home star Nooralotta Neziri in the third of the four heats, but with a time ninth fastest among the 16 qualifiers from a field of 26.

But she ran 13.73 in winning the event at the recent World Schools Athletic Championships, where she also captured the long jump title in helping Southend High to third place medals.

Atkins followed that twin success by winning the intermediate 80 metres hurdles at the English Schools’ Track and Field Championships in Sheffield.

In Finland more than 49 nations are competing in nine different sports and it is a tough task for Atkins as she is not only generally competing against older athletes but is also racing a distance 20 metres longer than she normally competes over.