A future Olympic hopeful has taken another step on her journey towards the top by being selected for a huge badminton tournament.

Letchworth's Leona Lee has been selected by Badminton England for the U17 European Championships next month, being held in Slovenia from September 7.

And she will go to the event heavily fancied to take the title.

Lee said: "I reached the fourth round in the U17 European Championships two years ago as one of the youngest players there.

"This time round I will be one of the favourites to win."

She is ranked number one in the country in the U17 age group and 19 across the ranking system as a whole.

The Hitchin Girls' School pupil will head to the Balkans in good form having just reached the quarter-finals of the Senior Gold event in Milton Keynes, losing to the number-one seed and eventual winner, 28-year-old Georgina Bland 21-18 21-15.

Lee also battled to round two of the U19 Bulgarian Junior Open, losing to Russia's fifth-seed Alexsandra Chushkina 22-20 21-7 and is also entered into the U17 Danish Cup at the end of the month.