Sarah Claxton blitzed the opposition to take a 100 metre hurdles victory at the Loughborough International meeting and continue her progression towards a place in the British team travelling to the Olympics in August.

The 28-year-old athlete from Colchester continued to build on a strong winter season, when she regained her place as the UK's top indoor hurdler and only missed out on a place in the World Indoor Championship final by 0.001 seconds, with some speedy early-season outdoor form.

She had already run a time of 13.16s in a race while at a warm weather training camp in America a couple of weeks ago and followed that with a run of 13.49s at Loughborough University to take first place in the women's invitational 100m hurdles.

Colchester Harriers athlete Catherine Holdsworth was second in the same race in a time of 14.28s.

While Claxton's time in the Midlands may not have been as quick as her American standard, she said the Loughborough event was into a strong headwind of 2.2 metres per second so was on a par with her earlier run.

"Things are going really well," said the Colchester and Tendring Athletic Club life-member.

"I was really pleased as 13.16 seconds was my quickest-ever season's opening time and it was quite a messy race as I hit two hurdles and skied the next one so I lost a bit of speed.

"You always feel a bit rusty at the start of the season and I feel there is much more to come.

"Working with my coach Lloyd (Cowen) and (former world silver medallist) Tony Jarrett has really been paying dividends and I have slimmed down as well which is helping me.

"I know I can build on the progression I have made and I was happy with my time at Loughborough as it was into a strong headwind so equated with what I ran in America."

Claxton's main objective of the early part of the season is to seal an early place in the British squad heading to Beijing in August and she feels that her recent form will allow her to achieve that goal before the AAA Championships and Olympic trials in Birmingham in July.

She added: "I want to have qualified by the time the AAAs come round and have quite a few chances to do that."

Her next opportunity will come at a Grand Prix meeting in Hengelo in Holland on Saturday when she will be looking to better the qualifying time of 12.95s and is aiming to beat her personal best of 12.93s over the 100m hurdles.