Holmwood teammates Diana Johnson (right) and Tamara Moncreif display some of last year's styles. - Anthony Minott

There is no doubting that Holmwood have reigned supreme as queens of the track in recent times, capturing seven successive Girls' Champs titles. But while their exploits on the track have been impressive, the team has become noticeable for another unique trait, their yearly elaborate hairstyles.

In fact, the display of the Manchester-based school is as anticipated each year as their performances on the track, and they never cease to amaze, consistently grabbing attention with their unique and colourful showings.

This year, 19-year-old class one athlete Nickeisha Beaumont is credited with coming up with the concept.

"It was basically my idea but everybody on the team came together and we arrived at a final decision on how it is going to be done," said Beaumont.

"It is done to follow the tradition set from the days of Anneisha McLaughlin and we just have to continue the trend. We are not going to break the trend," she added.

This year's hairdo has been termed 'craab up' and Beaumont explained why.

"This hairstyle is called 'craab up' just to show the other schools out there that we come to deliver at Champs this year. We actually came up with the hairstyle in one day, and it took a week to finish off everyone's."

Ornella Livingston, who will be running the 100m-, 200m-and 4X100m-races, revealed the team had to place orders to get all the hair they needed but is happy with the finished product.

"I like the hairstyle and everybody is talking about it," said Livingston. "It wasn't hard. It took like an hour for one person's hair to be done. We had to place an order about a week before to get hair for the entire team, then each person contributed to purchase the hair," she added.

Beaumont will take the track for the 4X100m and the class one long jump, an event in which she finished fifth last year; she is, however, confident of winning this time around.

"I have trained harder this year, and since this season started I have been executing better and have been doing my personal best with every jump. I am looking to take the class one record."