Part of our Young Athletes series, AW hears how the young athletics talent has loved his first proper season in the sport

After first joining an athletics club and only starting training in March, 15-year-old Ben Harris showed his potential in the sport by winning the English Schools triple jump title earlier this season. His 13.41m leap from Birmingham also puts him top of the UK under-15 rankings for this season.

Reflecting on the experience, Ben says: “I enjoyed it as much when I was sitting in the stands with my team watching the event as I did when I won my event! I loved watching all the events and seeing the winners. I spent a lot of the time in the warm-up area before the event getting mentally ready and I was getting in the zone with no distractions. I also did this in between jumps.”

Such an approach clearly paid off, as the Slough Juniors athlete jumped what was at the time a PB by more than 60cm to take his first national title. Since then, the rookie jumper has improved to a windy 13.46m at the England Athletics Under-15 Championships, but on this occasion he had to settle for silver, 1cm behind his main rival Teepee Princewill, who had been the runner-up to Ben at the English Schools.

Both athletes are coached by Daniel Sawyer, although Conrad Rowland also coaches Ben for sprints. Ben trains three or four times a week either at Thames Valley Athletics Centre at Eton or at Brunel.

Reflecting on his national silver, the level-headed teenager says: “I was just happy to come second to my training partner Teepee and with my other training partner Elliott coming third. I think Teepee deserved the win, as he is a brilliant athlete, but it was annoying as it was only by a centimetre.”

A talented all-rounder, Ben plays rugby for his county in the winter and recently was selected to train with London Irish. Therefore, this winter he will concentrate mainly on rugby, but he vows to return to athletics again next summer.

“I think playing at a high standard of rugby helps my fitness and my physical strength when it comes to being under pressure,” remarks Ben when speaking of how he feels his two sports complement one another.

Although he only joined a club this year, Ben first started jumping for his school two years ago. He says: “My PE teacher asked me if I wanted to try triple jump. He just assumed I would be good at it due to my height. So we went over to the jumping pit and he taught me the hop-step-jump. After a while I got the hang of it and I was jumping quite far for a 12-year-old. I won district and county events for year 7 pupils that year.”

Having recently embarked upon studying for his GCSEs at John Hampden Grammar School in Buckinghamshire, Ben is quite clear about his athletics aims. “I want to go to Loughborough University as it is the best in the country for sport and I will also have to work hard in my academic subjects. I want to represent my country in my lifetime as well,” he says.

You can find further performance stats on Ben on Power of 10 here.

» Support young athletics via the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, see rpmf.org.uk