Olympic gold medallist Jason Gardener has urged Oxfordshire 200m ace Sebastian Tully-Middleton not to rest on his laurels if he wants to export his domestic success onto the international stage.
Tully-Middleton, from Culworth, near Banbury, had a vintage 2009 season.
He won the England under 20 and under 23 Championships before climbing the podium again with silver at the English Schools Championships.
The 19-year-old sprinter will now look to make the transition to the global stage with the European under 23 championships on the horizon in the Czech Republic in 2011.
Gardener is no stranger to the switch between domestic and international ranks having claimed world junior championship silver in Portugal back in 1994, aged 18.
And Gardener believes Tully-Middleton needs to think like a professional if he is to make the transition smoothly.
“Doing well at events like the English Schools and national events is a great situation to be in.
“But for young people like Sebastian it is really important that you make the next step and keep progressing,” said Gardner, who was speaking at Carr Manor High School Specialist Sports College in Leeds as part of Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week.
“For me, making the move up from the English Schools to the next level was about getting myself a coach and really starting to take my athletics even more seriously.
“When you have showed the talent that Sebastian has the next step I would say would be to get a coach and then you can really look at the technical side of your running and improve even more.
“To keep progressing it is really important that you get that high-quality coach and then start looking to international competitions.”
Tully-Middleton has competed seven times already in 2010, winning 200m gold at the Bucks & Oxon County Championships in Oxford.
His heroics have earned him a place on Lloyds TSB’s Local Heroes scheme – and £1,000 funding in the process.
OXFORD City’s Danielle Anderson achieved a season’s best in the CAU Inter Counties Bedford senior women javelin of 43.13m.
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