Double world champion for our Jason J

ASON Burgess recently walked away from the gruelling sport Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) immortalised as its only double world champion.

The 46-year-old, from Leek, signed off from OCR by claiming a silver medal in this years World Championships staged in the Stratton Mountains in Vermont, USA.

But there was to be one last challenge this remarkable all-round sportsman couldn’t resist on home soil . . . the Spartan Challenge

Here is Jason’s rise to OCR world fame and his challenges along the way, in his own words:

From when I was a very young boy I have always been extremely active, growing up on Fairview Road, Leek. I was the youngest boy in the street and having all the fields behind us was the perfect childhood.

I suppose growing up in the 80s we were always outside playing, running around, building dens, playing football, hide and seek or on our bikes.

The only time you would be in the house was perhaps Saturday morning to catch up on Fraggle Rock, Super Ted and Batfink.

There is no question in my mind when I really started getting into sport it was when I started Leek High school. I was lucky enough to have such PE teachers that were passionate about their profession - Mr Sales and Mr Long.

It was obvious that they were very keen sportsmen that wanted to pass on their passion of fitness and winning. With those two games teachers Leek High school made it to every final, almost winning every competition we entered.

Some days I remember having PE in the morning, rugby training at dinner time and then doing schools' cross country after school.

Every day there was an opportunity to do physical exercise and those two games teachers would demand the best out of you. Mr Sales and Mr Long created a number of athletes just to name a few: Kevin Dean - Professional cricketer for Derbyshire for over ten years; Adam MillwardPlayed Rugby League for Nottingham Outlaws and Great Britain Amateurs; John Caller - England basketball player.

I can never thank these teachers enough for giving up so much of their own time to pass on their passion for sport and well-being to me.

When I left school there was a big sporting hole which I needed to fill. I had been doing jujitsu with Jean and Gary Mealey for many years, which had set good foundations for my next sport - boxing.

I got introduced to this by a friend and we used to travel to Buxton four to five times a week. I loved this new-found sport but found it extremely difficult to keep my composure when in the ring. It took me two years before I was allowed to have my first bout and even then I found it difficult to keep control.

My first bout was in Sheffield and I was on second from last on the cards. It was a long night waiting to get in that ring and I was so nervous. It was fair to say 95 per cent of the people that were watching had come from Leek.

When I was walking to the ring the place erupted and as you can imagine this didn’t help my nerves or my composure. The boxing match did not last long. The referee stopped it halfway through the first round and my opponent was on his way to hospital.

I remember the spectators being happy about the result, but my boxing coach was far from happy as my boxing skills were non-existent.

For those people who knew me well will know I had many more bouts after that, filling out many venues with spectators.

With boxing for many years, I had to run to keep my weight down and I started to enter running races including fell and cross country.

I then got asked to join Staffordshire Moorlands Athletics Club, which I did and started