ELLIE Stevens stuck gold at the Northern Indoor Championships in Sheffield as she emerged from the misery of another injury-wrecked year.

The 27-year-old Birchfield Harrier from Littleover was only three-and-a-half seconds outside her personal best as she won the 3000m title in nine minutes 42.82 seconds.

Stevens added a silver medal in the 1500m and her reward is a call-up to the England team which will travel to the annual Gugl indoor meeting in Linz, Austria on February 2.

Stevens' story includes a staggering catalogue of injuries and illness which has stalled what was a promising career when she was a Derby AC teenager.

She had mumps in 2006, followed by a stress fracture of the foot as she worked her way back to fitness and was then laid low first by the skin disease impetigo – followed by the chronic fatigue illness ME.

A 1500m win in the indoor Birmingham Games early last year seemed to signal another return to fitness.

But when Stevens won the 3000m in the Derbyshire Championships in May, she finished the race in pain – and found herself on crutches, having snapped a tendon in her foot.

If she had limped away from athletics at that point, few could have blamed her – but she is back again and says she is feeling more positive than ever.

Just before Christmas, she returned to action again, with a steady second place in the 3000m at the Northern Open in Sheffield.

"I had all my fitness in my recovery from long, steady runs and that was going to be the first time I'd pushed myself on the track, so to say I was very apprehensive would be an understatement," said Stevens.

"But it all went really well."

At the Northern Championships, she faced the prospect of racing twice in the same weekend.

"I hadn't done that for a while so, when it came to the 3000m, I just decided to sit in and take it steady, which I don't usually do," she said.

"There are 15 laps indoors and I sat in for 12, went with 600m to go and felt really comfortable."

Stevens now hopes there is still time for her to make a real impact at a national level.

The race in Austria starts a busy period which will really test her new-found fitness.

Three days after it, she is back in England for the indoor Birmingham Games.

Four days after that, on February 9, she will travel to Northern Ireland for one of her favourite road races, the Armagh 3K, which she has done three times before, coming fifth, second and seventh.

And then it will be back to Sheffield for a crack at the National Indoor Championships on the weekend of February 11 and 12.