TWO years ago UK Athletics dubbed her “Action Woman” for her success in several disciplines. But now Shirley Webb, a former ballet dancer and national diving champion, is enjoying the fruits of dedicating herself to one discipline. Yesterday, within six years of starting out as a hammer thrower in the seventh division of the Northern Women’s League, Webb effectively booked her place at the Olympic Games in Athens this summer.

Webb improved her Scottish women’s hammer record by 4.17 metres in finishing second in the European Winter Throwing Challenge in Marsa, Malta, with 67.52 metres. It took her into second place on the British all-time list behind Lorraine Shaw, the Commonwealth champion.

The best part of it, from Britain’s point of view, is that Webb is only 22 — Shaw is 35 — in what is becoming a young woman’s event. Four of the top five at the World Championships in Paris last year were in their early twenties. Despite having to train in a squash court all winter because gales demolished the floodlights at her outdoor base in Edinburgh, Webb now has the Olympic A qualifying standard.

Ranked No 30 in Britain in 2000, the year in which she was British Masters under-24 diving champion, Webb has been transformed by Chris Black, the 1976 finalist, her coach since 2001. She was a ballet dancer for 16 years from the age of three, a diver from 10, but was 16 before she began in athletics.

“I have always been used to three activities every night,” Webb said of her schooldays. “There was dancing, gymnastics, trampolining, swimming, diving. I passed all my professional exams in tap and modern and got a grade eight with distinction for ballet.” Her distinction earned her membership of the Royal Academy. Poise, control and balance are regarded as crucial to Webb’s hammer success.

• Carl Myerscough, the British shot-putter, has won a silver medal in the USA NCAA Championships. A week after making the IAAF World Indoor Championships final, Myerscough’s best effort of 20.19 metres for the University of Nebraska was bettered only by Dan Taylor, of Ohio University, who threw 20.30 metres.