Epping’s Bethany Harryman is looking to follow in her sister’s footsteps after she won silver at the World Catholic School Games in France last week.

The 15-year-old, who competed in the Under-18 age group in the high jump and cleared 1.60m, came second despite jumping against girls who were two years older than herself.

The teenager also sealed a personal best in the long jump by leaping 5.19m to finish fifth and revealed she gets her inspiration from older sister and heptathlete Naomi.

Bethany explained: “We are three years apart so I have never actually competed against her as we are different age groups.

“But I do look up to her as it is inspiring, but I do try and beat her score sometimes.”

The Thornwood Common athlete was delighted with her results at the Games where she represented Great Britain and competed against 25 other countries including Palestine, Malta and Brazil.

Due to her success she has been asked to represent her country once again next year at the event.

“It was great to win a medal, I felt like all my hard work had paid off,” she said.

“It was a great experience as I completed against other athletes and I felt proud to represent Great Britain.

“I represented my country for the first time and it was my first international competition.

“It was quite a deal for me and it was something I cannot describe, it is the whole atmosphere and meeting other countries made it really special.”

As her 18-year-old sister Naomi continues to work towards realising her dream of competing at Tokyo 2020, Bethany is unsure which path she wants to take with athletics at the moment.

Having been involved with the sport for two years, she is taking each competition as it comes.

She explained: “I don’t really know what way I want to go with athletics at the moment.

“I have only started doing athletics two years ago and I am just trying to get as many opportunities as I can and hopefully continue to improve.

“I think I might just cheer Naomi on in 2020 and leave that Olympics to her but maybe one day.”

The Harlow Athletics Club athlete trains four times a week with the focus on strength and speed sessions.

She said: “It is a lot of hard work but when you get a medal at competitions it shows that it pays off really.”

Bethany is now preparing to represent Essex this weekend in the Inter Counties match and has qualified for the English Schools Heptathlon finals in September.

And having beaten girls who were older than her in her age group, she said it has given her more confidence going forward.

“I felt it was quite a big achievement as I have a couple more years in this age group competing against these other girls,” she said.

“But competing against them made me feel a lot better and I tried to be on the same level as them and it worked as I came away with a medal.

“When I compete at any further competitions I will be continuing to try for more medals and more personal bests to add to my record.”