Pupil breaks Theo Walcott's record

A Compton school pupil has broken the footballing ace's school sports record for the 100m sprint

THE Downs School in Compton may just have another sporting star on its hands as one pupil has just broken footballing ace Theo Walcott's school 100m sprint record.

Joshua Willock, a year nine pupil at The Downs, has overtaken the Arsenal striker's record of 11.58 seconds, which was set in 2004 when Walcott was a year 10 pupil at the school.

During the school sports day on July 1 Joshua shaved a full seven tenths of a second off the record.

Like the current Olympic world champion and world record holder Usain Bolt, Joshua prefers the 200 metres, but said: “It felt really good. I didn't know how well I had done until someone told me the time. To be compared to someone like Theo who is such a great athlete is a real honour,” he said.

“The 100 metres wasn't really a target so it felt great to have run it so well.”

Joshua is also Berkshire Schools 200m champion and a regular competitor for Team Kennet where he is trained by Averil Hewitt, a sprints coach who has been working closely with Joshua to get him to his current level.