A teenage runner has his sights set on the Olympics after an unbeaten season saw him called up to the Great Britain team.
Sam Lunt, 17, from Eastham, began to take athletics seriously in Year 9, when his Sunday League football team folded. Now, on the back of an unbeaten 2022 season, the Neston High School pupil has competed for Great Britain and wants to run against the best.
A member of Wirral Athletics Club, Sam specialises in 400 metres and the 400 metre hurdles. Last season, he became the country's top ranked runner in both disciplines at under-17 level.
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His crowning moment came at the SIAB Schools International in Belfast in July, where he set a new under-17 British record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 51:55.
Across an outstanding 2022 outdoor season, he won 15 out of 15 400m hurdles competitions, setting club, regional, championship and national records along the way. Now, having moved into the under-20 category, he was selected for Great Britain to compete in the Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) U20 Indoor Match in Madrid in February and was part of a victorious British 4X400m relay team.
Sam told the ECHO about how he got into athletics and his ambitions for the future.
He said: "I was quite late into running, it was probably around year 9. Football was my primary focus but that started to dwindle, so I thought I'd give athletics a shot as I've always been decently quick. From there it has just gone on.
"I did some athletics a couple of times for the school in Year 8 and Year 7. That was probably one of the things, I got thrown into the 800m and did the 100m once or twice. That's where I started to find my speed and thought I could be decent at it.
"My grandad took me along to the club. I played Saturday and Sunday league football, but the Sunday club was folding so we thought it would be a good idea to try athletics.
"My grandad was one of the main reasons why I got into 400m hurdles and 400m. I wanted to just be a short sprinter, but he said 'just give it a go'. I really didn't want to 400m training, but it's changed from there."
Andy Fraser, 48, is Sam's coach at Wirral Athletics Club. He has worked with Sam from the start and spoke to the ECHO of his pride at seeing his immense progress.
Andy, from Pensby, said: "I remember when he came as a fresh-faced, mohawked little teenager. I think he must have been around 13/14. He would come once or twice a week, but he kept showing up, kept getting injured after football.
So we had to have a discussion about that as he was showing a lot of talent. He has progressed as he's got older, he's become more dedicated and more focused.
"He was fast at the start, but he was very uncoordinated. He was always very fast, but he was at the front. He had nobbly knees, he had knee braces.
"A lot of his introduction to hurdles was during lockdown. We weren't allowed on the track, but we were everywhere - car parks, fields, the local village green.
"We were going to introduce Sam to hurdles, he was very good. He was talented, but he wanted to focus on the short sprints. I thought we should give it a go.
"Once we were allowed back onto the track, we introduced him to the long hurdles and he took to it like a duck to water and there was no turning back from here."
Alongside studying A-levels in Psychology, Biology and PE at Neston, Sam trains five or six days a week. His training programme varies from strength and conditioning, work on the track and running on sand dunes to improve his power - a task he described as "awful".
However, the programme is working. Andy wanted to highlight the many achievements of Sam's 2022.
He said: "He had an unbeaten 2022 outdoor season and he broke every record there was to break - every championship record, every British record, every club record in 400m hurdles at under-17 level.
"I was trying to highlight what a season he's had. He's now moved up into the under-20s.
"He won the Northern indoor 200 and 400 title. We were heading for the national indoors, where he had a bit of a cock-up really and false-started in the final, but he was in with a chance of that title.
"We thought his chances of being selected for GB were over, based on that. But the following day he got a message that he was selected to represent GB at the DNA Match in Madrid at the end of February."
About his selection for Britain, Sam said: "It went really well, we won the relay I was in, so it was a nice experience. It was good to try out different relay forms - not just the 4X4."
"It was the first time I competed abroad. It was good to go and a fun experience.
"It wasn't a massive team like it would be if it was the European Championships but as a first experience and easing into it, it was a good championship to go to."
Having broken into the British team, Sam wanted to acknowledge the many people who have helped him on the way.
He said: "I get great support from my family and friends. I've got my Grandad who takes me to training, who takes me to competitions, to school, everything like that.
"Then I've got my mum who does all the stuff that nobody notices, the important stuff in the background. Feeding me - that's quite an important one, and keeping me in check, making sure I still do my schoolwork. I'm very thankful for my family."
Looking to the future, Sam and Andy have similar hopes.
Andy said: "Sam went to the British champs this year - as a 17-year-old, competing with seniors. He came third in the semi-final of the 400m indoor. It was a great learning curve, I think we both learned a lot.
"This month he's been selected to go on the UK futures programme. So he'll be on the training camp with 400m relay prospects.
"I'd like to see Sam keep on breaking the goals we set. Every goal I've set him since he's been with us, he's broken and he broke them within the next month, on the whole.
"We just have to keep on setting new goals every couple of months. Training is going well, I think he will get selected for the Europeans. Time shouldn't be a problem, it's just whether more people get that time - but I don't think there will be."
Sam holds similar ambitions and isn't scared to dream big. He said: "The aims for the season are to hopefully stay consistent and get more personal bests, hopefully go to the European Championships, maybe win that - we don't know, we'll have to see what happens.
"Long term goal would be, I'm not going to lie, would be being an Olympian, obviously. It would be pretty nice to beat some of the best around. Competing on the track with the best and making everyone proud."
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