Shania Payne is heading to Charlottetown, P.E.I. to compete for Team BC in the Legion Canadian Youth Track and Field Championships from Aug. 17 to 19.

The 16-year old sprinter is a student at Pitt Meadows Secondary heading into Grade 12.

She was a member of Golden Ears Athletics, but switched to the Coquitlam Cheetahs, coached by Tara Self, this past year to take advantage its sprint program.

It has been a long and arduous year for Shania starting with cross country training last September, and eventually switching to the track to begin intensive training.

The hard work paid off as Shania earned a pair of silver medals in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints for the Marauders at the BC High School Championship in June, which were followed up by bronze and silver respectively at the provincial championships held last month.

Along the way Shania achieved personal bests at the Jack Brow in Kelowna for the 200-metre of 25:18 seconds, chopping off almost a full second from last year, which earned her a spot on Team BC and at the Trevor Craven in Burnaby for the 100-metre of 12:25 shaving almost half-second.

Shania just returned from Winnipeg where she saw some impressive competition at the Canadian Junior Nationals. Her full focus is now on the Youth Championships in Charlottetown.