THE inspiring story of gold medallist Danny Crates added to the excitement of receiving an award for young athlete Kelly Roomes.

The Medway and Maidstone Athletics Club sprinter won a place at the new sporting academy at Canterbury High School 18 months ago. And at the school's sports awards evening she was named as the international achiever of the year.

Roomes, 17, is coached by Elaine Spalding and since joining the academy has improved her 200m performance by one second.

She has competed in the 200m for the English Schools, with a time of 24.7sec, and also for the British Schools. Her aim for 2005 is to reach the World Class Performance Programme and achieve a 23.8 personal best.

She received the award from Crates, 31, who was a promising rugby player until he lost an arm in a car accident in Australia in 1994.

He returned to play rugby, one-armed, and also qualified as a scuba diving instructor, working for a time at Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre - in a tank full of sharks.

Deciding to concentrate on athletics, he won a world indoor title in 2003 and in Athens this year won the 800m gold medal in his category in the Paralympics.

Crates told the school's award winners: “I’ve always believed life does not put any hurdles in front of you that you can’t handle. I dreamt what it would be like to stand on the podium and it all came true.”