BOLTON sprinter Amy Spencer continued her improvement when she broke the UK 200m indoor record on Sunday.

The 17-year-old clocked 23.34 to win the women's event at the Birmingham Games ahead of some of the country's top women 200m runners.

Her run shaved one tenth of a second off her personal best, the previous UK junior (under-20) record, and was all the more impressive because she still has two years left in this age group and because she went into the race relatively cold compared to her rivals.

It was her first indoor competition of the year and she has not been doing any speed work in training.

Her time was the fastest by a British senior woman this season and suggests that the former BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, who lives in Aspull and used to go to primary school in Blackrod, is in exciting form going into the World Indoor Championship trials in Birmingham this weekend.

An indication of just how fast she ran on Sunday is that had she run the same time in Friday night's 8,000 sell-out Grand Prix invitation on the same track - described by the BBC as "the World Indoor Championships in one night" - she would have finished third against some of the world's best runners.

Amy, whose precocious talent means she has to balance her athletics with her studies, will aim to prove herself against her main British senior rivals at this weekend's BBC televised trials and, if successful, test herself against the world's elite at the World Championships in Birmingham next month.

Like all sprinters Amy has to get used to the new false start rule which allows one false start per race instead of per person.

After the first illegal start of any race a runner who jumps the gun - whether he or she was the original offender or not - is disqualified.

A tangent rule allows for disqualified runners to run on appeal and have their protest heard after the race.

The idea is to speed up sprint events by eliminating numerous false starts.

It has also meant that runners who rely on a fast start now have to be more cautious.

Sprinters have given the innovation a generally poor reception and Amy is no different although she says it has not made any difference to he approach.

"I wasn't thinking about it on Sunday," she said. "I haven't changed my start but I don't think it is a very good idea.

"It is a bit hard on the runners and disqualified runners running on appeal could create a farce."

Amy is delighted with her impressive opening run of the season in which she beat Ireland's Ciara Sheehy (23.63) and top British runner Catherine Murphy (23.70) into second and third places.

"I didn't expect to run as fast as that at this stage," she said. "It was my first competition of the year and I've not been doing speed work so it came as a surprise.

"I enjoy running indoors and I'm looking forward to this weekend."