A FORMER Tavistock College student has been named as the Royal Logistics Corps' young sportswomen of the year.

Second Lt Jo Kelsey, who serves in 3 Close Support Regiment in the Royal Logistics Corps in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, is already the Army's ladies national cross-country champion, and 5,000 metre champion. Last month, Jo broke the Army 5,000 metre record.

Jo said she was pleased to have won, but had not been expecting it.

She said: 'It was quite a surprise, I didn't really know about it until I won. It was a big day.

Jo said she had been in the Royal Logistic Corps since January, and at Abingdon, for around three months.

'I always wanted to be at Abingdon, because it is the base for the Army's athletics team,' she said.

There are around 15,000 soldiers in the Royal Logistics Corps. Those in contention for the award were whittled down to a final shortlist of six, from which Jo was chosen as the winner.

Jo's Army athletics coach, Major Clive Osbourne, said she was a deserving winner of the award.

'She is a very focussed girl. You don't have to do much training with her, because she motivates herself. She is a bit of a perfectionist, and is single-minded, but that is good.

'No question about it, she has got the talent to go places,' he said.

Jo was due to compete yesterday (Wednesday) in an inter-services competition in Portsmouth.

Last month, she ran in the Commonwealth Games trial in Manchester, but did not achieve the qualifying time.

She said she had been 'gobsmacked' just to be invited, and wanted to return to the Commonwealth trials again to try to qualify for the Games.

Jo, 25, is a former member of Tavistock Athletics Club, and has been running for about seven years.

She said she still liked to represent Tavistock Athletics Club when she got the chance, and was hoping to wear the Tavistock vest at a race meeting, while on leave later this month.