James Arminio, the 18-year old from Gloucester who has stormed his way into the athletics scene, is hungry for more.
Following a second-place place relay finish at the U20 World Championships in Oregon back in the summer, the teen has been propelled to strive for more.
Arminio has strayed across the pond and is currently training in Texas until Christmas to “achieve the next level”.
The training is led by coach Will Collins, founder of Fast University, who bring athletes from across the world together to undergo intensive training.
“He’s a well-known coach in the track and field space, he’s considered among the top biomechanics coaches in the world,” Arminio praised.
The Team GB athlete has settled into training well and is enjoying the familiar track environment.
“It’s a close-knit community because the group’s quite small.
“There’s only about 10 of us in the group, so we can all get to know each other, and it’s a bit more of a family”.
But it’s not all sunshine and rodeos in the jumbo state as training to be among the elite is not always pretty.
“Wednesday is the session everybody hates, it’s the long lactic 300m session, the nausea sessions, the ones where you question why you’re still in the sport.”.
The long sessions aren’t the only challenge, as Arminio claims that “it took him a while to get used to the heat” when the weather averaged 30 degrees most days.
The south-west based sprinter explained that his motivation stems from his previous achievements, and his drive was “higher than it had ever been before” after securing a silver medal.
“Once you get a taste for that elite level, the motivation increases by 100 times.”
“You just want to be there again, you want that to be your lifestyle, not just a couple of days in the summer.”
The prospects for Arminio’s future look bright, and his professional career reached a new level when he got selected to run in front of a home crowd of 60,000 at a sold out Diamond League meeting at the Olympic Stadium.
“Even though we came seventh, it doesn’t matter because it was against professional teams.”
The young athlete faces his final year in the U20 category in 2027 and is ready to tackle the transition from junior to senior athletics.
“I want to attack the British records. I want to make the most of my last year as a junior.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I came to the US because I want to maximise my success as much as possible for this season.”
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