A Sandys Secondary Middle School student is not only a road running aficionado, but on the school?s Honour Roll.

Danlia Martin, 13, said her favourite sport is road running, but she enjoys swimming as well.

?It feels good to win a prize because I just run to run,? she said.

In the past Danlia has won the Denton Hurdle Memorial Award, took first place in the KPMG Running Series last year, placed second the Front Street Mile junior race, first place in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Championships in Orlando and has received awards from the Bermuda School Sports Federation (BSSF) for track and field and the Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA) and a host of other awards.

But Danlia is also a high academic achiever.

When she attended Somerset Primary she was head girl, house captain, school track and field captain, and in the library club and girl?s club.

She was also a member of the Somerset Primary Active Researchers of Knowledge Club, a Brownie, a member of the West End Athletic Club and she attends the Beulah Tabernacle Church Youth Group. The Somerset student said she had been running ever since she was two.

?I was in nursery and my gym teacher told my mother (Rosy Martin) that she should allow me to run,? said Danlia.

?I want to be a physical education teacher or a regular school teacher for P1s and P2s (primary one and two).?

To help pay for her running trips she works after school on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lindo?s Supermarket, in Warwick.

?This summer I am going to Florida with the Western Athletic Club and I am going to Jamaica with the Bermuda Union of Teachers,? she said.

?I will race in both places.?

Danlia also likes babysitting, biking and jumping off the rocks.

?Like running, I swim to have fun,? she said, ?And when I can?t swim I still run.

?I don?t like beaches, but I like to jump off the rocks or a wharf wherever my brothers two brothers, Dennis and my twin Daniel, are fishing.?

Other than swimming she also likes to go fishing on the boat with her dad, Dennis Martin.

?We sometimes go out north shore past North Rock and the biggest fish that I caught was a sucker shark,? she said. ?It is a small baby shark that cleans bigger sharks and it was about two-feet-long or so.?

Danlia, who is also learning Spanish, said she has made the Honour Roll for the past four years.

?I am aiming to make Principals List this year,? she said. ?I will know if I made it three days before school closes.?

She said she keeps her grades high by mainly doing homework as soon as she gets it.

She said: ?After I come home from school and do my chores I study.?