Shaftesbury Barnet's David Parker, Britain's top young javelin thrower, has been awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Each year 100 awards are made, and David is the youngest recipient in 2000.

He is currently a sports scholar at Loughborough University, sponsored by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

David plans to use his award to study the contrasting training regimes of front-running athletic nations, and will visit the USA on a four-week study trip which he is planning himself.

'This will be a great opportunity to acquire a lot of useful knowledge to pass on to future generations of athletes,' said David.

He has a personal best of 77.48m, was world junior champion in 1998, and won the silver medal at last year's European Junior Championships.