For 16-year-old Mason had to be content with silver behind Victoria Ohuruogu – the 15-year-old sibling of Christine, who won the 400m title in Osaka, Japan last year and is gunning for glory at the Beijing Olympics in China.

Mason, of Lawton Drive, has dominated junior sprinting in Nottinghamshire in recent years and has completed a hat-trick of 100m and 200m titles in the county's AAA Championships.

The Notts AC starlet has also excelled in the unusual distance of 300m, over which she locked horns with Ohuruogu jnr at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham last weekend.

Ohuruogu held all the aces in the heats with Mason finishing third to qualify for the final in a time of 40.54 seconds.

The Bulwell teenager went on to smash her personal best (PB) in the final with a run of 40.15 seconds but had no answer to her Newham and Essex Beagles rival, who dipped under 40 seconds with a time of 39.77 – also a PB.

The race could be the first in a lengthy rivalry between the two talented sprinters, who have both targeted an appearance at the 2012 Olympics in London in the 100m or 200m.

The younger Ohuruogu is a member of a 60-strong pool of athletes from the London borough of Newham, picked as potential Olympians and being mentored by former Olympic javelin gold-medallist Tessa Sanderson.

But Mason is also one of the country's brightest young stars and in 2006, she represented Nottinghamshire at the International Children's Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

She is currently waiting for her GCSE exam results before joining South Notts College to do a sport development course.

MASON was one of only two Nottinghamshire athletes to compete at Birmingham last weekend – the other being Hucknall middle-distance runner Robert Needham.

The 14-year-old, of Stainsborough Road, was also on the medal trail with a bronze secured in a photo-finish in the 800m.

Needham qualified for the final with a win in his heat after coming from the back of the field to register a time of two minutes 5.67 seconds.

In the final, he looked out of the medals in fifth place with 200m to go. But a determined sprint for the line brought three athletes together in the tightest of finishes.

After an agonising wait, Needham, who goes to Hucknall National Comprehensive School, was awarded third by three-hundredths of a second in a time of two minutes 4.06 seconds. He missed out on silver by a further three-hundredths.

The winner was Luke Carroll, of Cheltenham Harriers, who won in two minutes 1.84 seconds – a second slower than Needham's lifetime best, which he set earlier this season on the same track.

The bronze continues an excellent year for all-rounder Needham, who won golds in the 400m and 800m and silver in the long jump at this season's Nottinghamshire AAA Championships.