CHARFIELD hammer thrower Zoe Derham cruised to her third successive UK Championship title in Birmingham on Saturday - but admitted to leaving with a bitter taste in her mouth.

The 28-year-old topped the podium at the Alexander Stadium with ease thanks to a best throw of 67.94m - over five metres ahead of Carys Parry in second.

Derham headed to the Midlands eyeing up coach Lorraine Shaw’s British record of 68.93m - but struggled to get close despite recording five out of six successful throws.

The Birchfield Harrier was also 69 centimetres down on her personal best of 68.63m and despite acknowledging her gold admitted her celebrations were muted.

“I am not overly delighted because I was really looking to throw a personal best,” said Derham. “Getting gold was great and you can never take that for granted but I wasn’t even thinking about it being my third year on the trot.

“I just wanted to go out there and throw well - I threw very solidly but I know I have a lot more in my locker and hopefully I can really start showing that and throwing a lot further.

“If I had to look at the positives it would be that that was my second biggest throw of the year which was good but I obviously wanted to do a lot better than that.”

The Charfield ace won’t have to wait long to settle her UK Championship score as she prepares to travel back to the Alexander Stadium this weekend for the Birmingham Games.

However Derham - who failed to make the final at the Olympics in Beijing last summer - admitted she will be keeping changes to a minimum as she bids to hit the World Championship ‘A’ qualifying standard of 70m for the first time.

“It is great that the Birmingham Games have come around so quickly and I want to go there and learn my lessons and really put a marker down,” she added.

“Preparation will be the same for that - I won’t make any unnecessary changes. I just need to keep myself in shape and if I do that I am confident I can do enough to be where I need to be.”