Sky Sports - Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008 - Sponsored by Puma

Imagine exceeding the qualifying standard for a major global championship and finishing inside your nations top-three metric milers in the trial, only to miss out on gracing the biggest international arena - two years running.

Many athletes would be unhappy to say the least but Hannah England bounced back from such consecutive setbacks to ensure her performances developed from being overlooked to eye-catching.

The 22-year-old 1,500m runner first burst onto the senior international scene in 2008 when, during a year studying at Florida State University, England sensationally took the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) indoor mile and outdoor 1,500m titles with personal best performances.

England, trained by Bud Baldaro, Jim and Karen Harvey-coached athlete, thereafter justifiably hoped her rich vein of form was enough to thrust herself into the hot-seat of contenders for Olympic selection.

Despite finishing third in the trial for Beijing however, England was overlooked for sport's biggest representative honour ahead of 2008 world junior 1,500m champion, Steph Twell.

However Twell and Scotland's Susan Scott both failed to progress beyond the heats in the Chinese capital, while 2006 Commonwealth champion Lisa Dobriskey was the best of the Brits in an agonising fourth.

England, though, set out for redemption in 2009 - and although she suffered a tactical blip at the European Indoors, last year was certainly filled with more highs than lows.

After claiming silver in the National Indoors, England surprised the GB selectors with two fourth-placed finishes in the European Team Championships in Portugal last June.

Overlooked

Shining on her senior international debut, England set a personal best in the 800m with 1:59.94, followed by another fine display in the metric mile.

Flying and in the form of her life, England was ready to make the squad for the World Championships in Berlin; where Dobriskey went on to claim silver - but her fate was scuppered at the hands of the GB selectors again as she was overlooked in favour of Twell once more.

"Failing to get selected for Beijing and Berlin was very disappointing. 2008 and was a tremendous year for me, I didn't go into it thinking I had a chance at going to the Olympics and to come so close was a big surprise," England said.

"Not being selected for Berlin was perhaps more upsetting as 2009 was my first track season targeting a senior championships, and it was hard to deal with putting in another year of hard training only to end up in the same position as the year before."

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, England chose to prove a point by running another best performance of 4:04.29 in Europe and ending the season as one of the top-12 time-ranked metric-milers in the world. This saw England invited to the prestigious World Athletics Final in Greece, where she finished a magnificent runner-up and collected $20,000 for her efforts.

England said: "I was very happy with the majority of my performances in 2009.

Exciting

"I was balancing the final year of my degree and I feel I came out a stronger athlete physically and mentally. 2009 was also my first year travelling abroad for races, I found this really exciting and love being able to visit different countries and also think I learnt how to cope with travelling and competing."

England has gone on to show her desire to continue her improvement during the winter by finishing fifth place in the esteemed Fifth Avenue mile in New York, as well as victory in the BUPA Great North City Games mile and the UK European cross-country trial.

England is now preparing for 2010 in the heat of Florida and has started 2010 as she means to go on, winning the women's mile at the Millrose Games in New York.

And with the European Championships in Barcelona this summer and the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October, England has a major championship appearance firmly in her sights.

"Training has been going well so far this winter," England said. "As much as a love the set up in Birmingham, I wasn't relishing the prospect of sitting out the big freeze there so I have come to Florida for five weeks so that I can be in a climate which doesn't interfere with my training.

"I'm racing in Boston over 3,000m this weekend (Feb 6th) but after that I'm having a long training period in the lead up to the outdoor season. I'd love to make the Europeans and the Commonwealth championships this year but with my selection record we'll have to see!"