Girl stops running and starts to encourage laggers (6)

I believe the answer is:

damsel

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'girl' is the definition.
(I know that damsel is a type of maid)

'stops running and starts to encourage laggers' is the wordplay.
'stops running' becomes 'dams' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'encourage laggers' is 'el'.
'dams'+'el'='DAMSEL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for damsel that I've seen before include "Young lady of old, perhaps in distress" , "Girl (literary)" , "Old-fashioned young woman" , "Maiden (poetic)" , "Maid" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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