AN OLYMPIC hopeful from Hampshire will be at the start – and finish – line when dozens of runners take to the streets of Clanfield this spring.

Louise Damen will be the one shouting “ready, get set, go”, as the Winchester athlete has agreed to start the races in the Clanfield Challenge 2016.

The Clanfield Joggers and www.clanfieldonline.co.uk have joined forces to launch the inaugural event on May 22, which will consist of separate 12km, 5km and 1km races on courses around the village.

Dozens of people from East Hampshire have already signed up to the event, with proceeds going towards good causes and community projects around Clanfield.

Louise is a world-class marathon runner who is pushing hard to make the Team GB squad for this summer’s Rio De Janeiro Olympics.

She got her marathon career off to a flyer in 2011 with her 2hr 30min finish – the third fastest debut performance by a British female runner – and has gone on to win the English National Cross-Country race in 2011 and 2013, and in 2013 she was the Inter-Counties Cross-Country champion.

She finished seventh in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and she has enjoyed three top 20 placings at the European Cross-Country Championships in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

She sadly missed the cut for the 2012 Olympics, but has every chance of boarding the plane to Brazil as she finished 16th and ninth in the London and Osaka Marathons, respectively.

The 1km route during the event will begin and end in Clanfield’s South Lane Meadow, looping around the main cricket field and meadow enclosure. It is for children aged under-12.

The 5km route will begin on North Lane and the views of Windmill Hill running back into Clanfield will give competitors something to focus on.

The 12km course will begin on North Lane, head towards the old HMS Mercury site above East Meon, loop round towards North Wood and back into Clanfield for a finish on the meadow.

For full details, visit www. clanfieldchallenge.co.uk