A talented secondary school pupil and athlete from York is set to compete for his country this weekend, at the Home Countries’ International Schools’ Track and Field Championship to be held in Carmarthen, Wales.
Budding athlete, Rowan Whittaker, aged 15, who is a student at Millthorpe School, has been selected to represent England in the 400m track event, after racing his way through several qualifying rounds.
Rowan performed brilliantly in the initial rounds, firstly representing Millthorpe School at the York and District Athletics event in June where he qualified to compete in the Inter Counties School competition in Gateshead later that month. Here, he represented Millthorpe in the 100m relay and won gold in the 400m.
His win in the 400m meant that Rowan went on to represent North Yorkshire at the English Schools Track and Field Championships in Birmingham last weekend where he won silver in the intermediate boys U17 400m with a time of 49.5 seconds. The first two placed athletes in each event now go on to represent England at the UK Schools National Finals in Carmarthen, Wales this weekend.
Rowan said “I’m so happy to be able to compete for my country in the 400m, wearing an England vest. More or less as soon as my race was over in Birmingham and I’d been awarded my medal, I was whisked off by officials to get fitted for my England kit – it was very exciting! I’m really looking forward to competing on Saturday. I know I’m going to be up against some amazing athletes but I’ll give it my absolute best.”
Rowan’s mum, Elisabeth Horton said “I’m delighted that Rowan has got this opportunity to represent his country. He loves athletics, and to be honest most other sports, but he has trained particularly hard with his coaches at the City of York Athletics Association, to get where he is with his running. I’m very proud of him and will be cheering him on on Saturday!”
Kavina Rothenburg, Acting Headteacher at Millthorpe School added “Rowan is an absolute superstar, and we know how hard he works both on and off the athletics track. He thoroughly deserves this chance to run for England and we wish him all the very best for his England debut. We’ll be supporting him from afar and have no doubt that he has an incredible future ahead of him.”
18 July 2024
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