AN OLYMPIC coach and two world-class sprinters put a Tavistock youngster through his paces, after he won a national competition. Adam Holland from Tavistock was one of 12 young athletes to be selected from thousands of applicants, to attend an exclusive training session with Olympic coach Tony Lester, after he entered a BBC competition, during the World Athletics Championships. The competition, which asked athletics enthusiasts to tell BBC sport why they should be chosen, saw Adam and eleven others, selected to travel to Thames Valley Athletics Centre in Eton on Wednesday, August 31 for the session. Tony Lester, who has given tips to athletes including Denise Lewis and Mark Lewis Francis took the session, along with two of his most promising athletes, Olympic Finalist and 100m specialist Abi Oyepitan and Britain?s top 400m runner, Tim Benjamin. Adam said: ?It was brilliant. It was filmed for Grandstand which was really weird and it?ll be on the BBC sport website next month.? ?The session was two hours, it was meant to be two and a half hours, but someone injured themselves, so we had to stop. It was drills and warm-ups. They were all sprinters but I?m long distance. ? Adam, who trains with Tavistock Athletics Club, has been very successfull. ?I did the 3k walk in Exeter at the Devon Championships. The first time I did it I broke the under 17s Devon record and then the next year I broke the under 20s. They didn?t do it this year so I am going to write to them?. ?And tonight (Thursday, September 1) there?s the four-mile trial around Tavistock. I?m just six seconds off the club record, so I?ve got to get it?. The 18-year-old manages to fit training in during the evenings when he is not working at Duchy College, but he has a busy schedule to follow with at least one competition a week. ?In two weeks I?ve got a 5K national walk with Cornwall Schools in Southampton. I did the first event for fun, without training and I got through. It?s all England schools there, but it can be popular professionally.? Adam who has only been doing athletics for five years, has already gained a lot of experience, and the exclusive training session has only whetted his appetite for more. In a few years, he hopes to break into the professional circuit.
