Teenager Katie Snowden gained a stunning victory at the England Athletics Championships in Bedford.

The Herne Hill Harriers runner clocked a lifetime best 54.59 seconds to win the U20 women’s 400m title.

Despite, at 16, being the youngest of the finalists, she finished 4m clear, breaking the Surrey women’s U17 record held by four-time Olympian Donna Fraser.

Snowden, crowned South of England junior 800m champion a week earlier, had won her heat in 56.17.

However, although the event doubled up as trials for next month’s IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, Snowden still has work to do to make the plane as she was outside the 53.75 selection standard set by UK Athletics.

She has until July 4 to achieve this mark.

Another 16-year-old, Emelia Gorecka, made light of being the youngest of 12 finalists to claim the England junior women’s 3000m title by almost five seconds (9:25.65).

The Howard of Effingham schoolgirl’s best time of 9:18.38, set when winning the Surrey U17 title at Kings-meadow, remains outside the World Championships qualifying mark of 9:15.00.

Gorecka’s elder brother Josh won the junior men’s 5,000m (14:28.24) to claim his first national title.

Former Wandsworth schoolboy Jermain Olasan took silver in the long jump (7.55m).

The former Emanuel School pupil is now the top-ranked junior in the UK and must stand a strong chance of making the team for Canada.

Hercules Wimbledon’s Alex Robinson took more than half-a-minute off his previous 5,000m best in finishing 13th (15:09.14).

Epsom & Ewell’s Sandra Seaton also clocked a lifetime best 13.92 to take silver in the U20 women’s 100m hurdles, the first time she had broken 14 seconds.

Herne Hill Harriers’ Julien Allwood was third in the junior long jump (14.88), with Sutton & District’s Joe Lawrence also achieving a personal best in fifth (14.61m).

Sutton & District’s Sarah Abrams (11.82m) was fourth in the junior women’s triple jump.

Herne Hill’s Paul Oleyemi came ninth in the U23 long jump (6.71m).