SPORTING CHAMPION

to train with them.

My first race for the club was their very own Summer Series, which was a fantastic set of races with tough competition.

After coming in the top five in the first two races the team manager introduced me to coach Dave Owen.

Dave was just like my old games teachers. He did not reward mediocrity and expected nothing but the best you could give.

From that moment I came away from boxing and put my time and effort into running. Myself and Dave became a team. I knew I had to come away from boxing as my metacarpal bones in my right hand had been broken seven times, not to mention a broken jaw and a nose that was like a boomerang.

I ran for the Staffordshire Moorlands Athletics Club for many years classing myself as an okay club runner, winning the odd race here and there.

Then one day I got told about an obstacle course race that was happening in Derby. It was called ‘X Runner,’ so I entered not knowing what to expect.

There were thousands of runners that went off in waves of 150 every 15 minutes throughout the day. There were plenty of runners faster than me in the race, but they could not get over the obstacles or complete the swim sections as quick as myself, so I was lucky enough to win the prize money.

With Dave Owen coaching me on my running and I was now doing plenty of strength classes at Brough Park leisure centre with fitness instructor Samantha Moss. This kind of racing was ideal for me. I was lucky enough to win every race I entered and started to travel around the country to do more.

The best races at the time was the men’s health survival of the fittest which took place in London/Nottingham/Manchester/Edinburgh/Card iff which I managed to win them all.

In 2014 I decided to run the JCB Mud Run which was a local enjoyable race. To my surprise JCB invited me to run for the UK JCB team in Savannah Georgia USA. It’s fair to say this trip was amazing and the JCB Savannah employees made us feel so welcome, giving the UK team tours of their factory and surrounding areas.

I will never forget the race in Savannah as it was the only time I’ve been scared so much so I was running backwards towards oncoming runners: I didn’t realise there were alligators in Savannah!

I was told the day before the race that an alligator had to be removed from the lake in front of the factory as the race went straight through the lake.

I was the first athlete to get to the water section and when I started to run into the water there were some pretty big fish jumping out the water at the side of me to get out of my way.

At first glance running at speed the first thing that went through my head was ‘alligator;’ as you can imagine I got out of that water and started running the other way quicker than Usain Bolt!

It’s fair to say I did not win that race but I eventually finished. I believe I was the quickest through the water section!

In 2015 I started to develop problems with my kidneys, which put a stop to my sporting activities as I needed a major kidney operation. I was in hospital for a while and even when I came home I could not move very far as I had a stent fitted, which was extremely painful when I moved around.

After being ill for most of that year - a couple of months not being able to move far at all - my fitness was the worst it had ever been. But at least I was well again.

As soon as I was able to I started work on my fitness again, pushing harder than ever before trying to get back what I'd missed.

In 2017, I competed in my first major tournament, the Obstacle Course World Championships at the Blue Mountains resort in Ontario, Canada. I had trained for 18 months for this one race, studying all my opponents and developing a race strategy: my race strategy lasted three minutes 20 seconds.

I was planning on sitting behind the race flavourite, but when we hit the first hill I went up it so fluently and smoothly I left the other athletes behind.

From that point I took the lead and never looked back. I made no mistakes and managed to win a race I cannot remember anything about.

The whole trip to Canada still seems to be a blur to me. I look back on videos and don’t even recognise myself. Maybe that’s just being so focused on what I had to do.

I believe there is one thing harder than being at the top of your chosen sport and that is staying at the top.

That year I also decided to go for the European Championships in Denmark. This race demanded a lot of upper body strength work tackling rigs and obstacles I had never seen before.

I knew I was in good shape and the work I had done with Dave Owen and Samantha Moss put me in good stead as I came home in first place.

In 2018 the Obstacle World Championships were held in the UK just outside London. So this was something I wanted to win on my own soil in front of my own family. This also gave me a big advantage as I knew the course and terrain, so I could study the obstacles beforehand.

All the same I did not have this race so easy. I wasn’t even in a leading pack until halfway through, but at the later stages I managed to pull through and take the win.

All the training in preparation for these races was starting to take its toll on my knees. I was forever seeing osteopath James Bews and eventually had to have my meniscus tendon on both knees operated on.

I have also had scans on my Achilles heels as I am constantly in pain with them. Plenty of physio on them but no operations yet.

Over the last couple of years there has been a bit of downtime for obvious reasons, but in the background I have still been keeping fit.

My preparation for the 2022 Obstacle Course World Racing Championships Stratton Mountain resort, Vermont, USA: I would’ve retired from this sport in 2019, but with having the operations and then not being able to compete due to Covid, I said that this would be my last year no matter what.

I wanted to retire on my own terms, not through injury or age, but I must admit some mornings I was having to go downstairs backwards with the help of the banister.

This race in the USA was going to be my last obstacle course World Championships and I wanted to go out on top.

It was so hard to be consistent with my training as I was fighting back injury all the time.

My coach Dave Owen structured my training in such a way it was smarter not harder and that is what has got me to the start line. There was no pressure on me to perform at this World Championships, only the pressure I apply to myself, which is immense. I push myself to the limits to not just please myself and embrace the pain, but please the people that have given up their time to coach me, guide me and push me in the right direction.

I could explain how the race went but, in the end, I came second to the better athlete and I was the first to shake his hand, only for him to break down and tell me he never thought of the day would come when he would beat me.

I was planning on that being my last race. However there was something called the Spartan European Championships coming up in the UK.

This is something like obstacle course racing but a lot more strength is required and suits the bigger athlete. I had qualified for this earlier on in the year and put this on the back burner to see how I felt after the world champs. I decided to run this race just two days before: not the best preparation, but I knew this was going to be my last chance to run against the best in Europe.

I was not the race favourite as I do not specialise in Spartan races and with doing the World Championships only two weeks before, no one expected me to be even racing on about competing at the sharp end.

After about two miles into the race I found myself in a small group but there were two athletes pulling away (French and Spanish). Every time we were faced with another obstacle one of the athletes in my pack dropped away, eventually leaving me on my own chasing the two other athletes.

After the swim section of the course, I really started to find my rhythm and began the chase down the other two athletes eventually coming alongside the Spaniard.

After a mile or so of racing alongside each other I eventually started to pull away, with only the leader to chase down with less than a mile to go. I knew I had to give it everything I got left in the tank with no mistakes as the Frenchman was the Spartan world champion.

I eventually got alongside him with only 400 metres left to go. One last push was needed and with the finish line in sight that’s what I gave, eventually winning by five seconds.

When I was on the podium it was nice for the commentator to announce that this was my last international race and I was retiring from the sport.

Any athlete is only as good as the people they have around them. I’ve had some fantastic people around me and all my achievements have been down to them.

Two times OCR World Champion; OCR Silver medallist world champion; Spartan European champion; OCR European champion