Teenage girls in Harrow have been inspired by Commonwealth Games champion Ashleigh Nelson to keep fit and get more active in sports.

Training starts next month for girls at Hatch End High School with fitness influencer Krissy Cela in a programme to stop the decline in getting into sports.

Krissy’s Project Power programme aims to help girls feel more confident to stay active.

She launched it following research showing girls up and down the country who once considered themselves ‘sporty’ had dropped out of physical activity when they started secondary education — only six out of 10 said they liked PE, compared to almost nine out of 10 boys.

Now the programme aims to transform the way girls at Hatch End High School see sports, to encourage them to take part.

It involves workshops to build confidence and each girl given free ‘fitnesswear’ like gym leggings, a sports bra and T-shirt to overcome  the “barrier to exercise” among girls aged 14 to 18 through not having their own PE kits.

The programme is inspired by sprinter Ashleigh Nelson, who represented GB as a teenager at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and later went on to win a bronze at the 2014 European championships when she was 23.