Among her first international medals was a silver behind Soviet athlete Tatyana Shlupkina at the 1991 European Youth Olympic Days. She was a silver medallist at the 1993 European Athletics Junior Championships behind Finland's Mikaela Ingberg. She was only the second British woman to reach the javelin podium at that event, after 1979 winner Fatima Whitbread. She entered the World Junior Championships in 1994, but did not make the final there. Her fourth place finish at the 1997 European Athletics U23 Championships was a new high for a British woman at that competition.