Introduction - Who am I?

I am an energetic, enterprising young man from South-West London making big strides in track and field as a 400 meter hurdler. I began Athletics at Sutton Grammar School in 2008, converting to track after competing as a cross country runner after discovering a turn of speed, making me ideal, so the teachers said, for the 400 meters. I find the tactics of the race fascinating and set about adapting my own to get the best out of my ability, to varying degrees of success initially.

Having delved in various team sports, in 2013 I finally decided I enjoyed the pain of lactic acid and took up 400 Hurdles full time. I had done a few races over 400 meters and hurdled whilst at school so thought my best chances of success were training hard and competing in the 400 Hurdles. My opportunity for this came when I was found at Sutton Arena , lost and confused, by Judy Vernon (former Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles champion!), who pointed me in the right direction and sent me to train with Marina Armstrong, who I am still coached by today and will be for many years to come. The group includes international junior stars Jacob Paul and Shona Richards among other fine athletes. 

I took to winter training slowly, initially struggling with long sessions at the end of long days at school, however I shook these troubles off and, after a successful warm weather training, managed to have a very successful first season in 2014. I achieved a silver medal at the Under 20 South of England Championships before winning the English Schools Championships 400 Hurdles at my first and last ever try, achieving a pb of 53.39 in the final to steal victory on the line. 

During winter 2014 I was following the training plan from the University of Birmingham, and was lucky enough to have some strength and conditioning help from UB Sport, returning home occasionally so Marina could critique my hurdling. I took to the training a lot better in my second year, pushing on from the times I achieved the year before and working a lot harder. After another successful Warm Weather training in Spain, the season took off early for me as I took 5th place at BUCS (British University Championships) with a new pb. I then achieved more pbs racing in Belgium, breaking the 52 second barrier for the first time, but never really kicked on from these times for the rest of the year, which was disappointing. However I continued to race well, picking up good wins at Loughborough EAP and British League at Watford and was consistently under 53 seconds, topping the year off with an England senior silver medal at Bedford, my first senior medal. 

2016 promises to be my most exciting year yet, with a tour of the USA coming up this Easter and the Olympic trials coming up before main event in Rio. Winter so far has been my best yet, so I am looking forward to some great results this coming year. Thank you for supporting this blog and thank you for your support, past, present and future! 

First International Vest - Cardiff 2014.

Taking victory at Loughborough EAP meeting.