MTC

Personal Bests
400m hurdles: 54.18s
400m: 51.48s

Aged just 21, Perri Shakes-Drayton is one of the most talked about up and coming names in athletics. Perri narrowly missed out on making the team for the Beijing Olympics, but has been strongly touted as a potential medallist for London 2012. Perri, who specialises in the 400m hurdles, has the backing of Olympic 400 hurdles champion Sally Gunnell to go all the way in 2012 and after her recent exploits at the European Championships in Barcelona 2010, where she stormed to 2 bronze medals, many athletics experts are predicting big things for the Londoner.

Perri went to Barcelona hoping to gain experience of the big stage and get to a major final but exceeded all expectations as she claimed a fabulous bronze medal in the 400m hurdles setting a new lifetime best in the semi final and then again in the final. Her exploits placed her as the third fastest British female in history in the 400m hurdles and as if that was not enough, two days later Perri anchored home Great Britain's 4 x 400m relay team with an astonishing run of 49.7s, which was faster than all of the specialist 400m runners on the GB team, to secure the bronze medal for the team and her second of the championship.

Perri, who is currently studying for a degree in Sports Science at Brunel University, has been successful on the junior stages claiming the 2009 U23 European Championship and a silver medal at the 2007 European Junior Championships but has now arrived on the main stage and if she continue her progress then anything is possible for this exceptionally talented athlete.

Sponsored by Nike, Perri is also a brand ambassador for UKA principal partner McCain.

www.mccaintrackandfield.co.uk

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