Olympic hopeful Antonio meets Daley Thompson

Haileybury’s Olympic hopeful, Antonio Infantino, rubbed shoulders with celebrities such as Daley Thompson and Geoff Capes, and other aspiring Hertfordshire Olympians last week, during a function at Castle Hall, Hertford held to raise funds for the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund.

The Fund assists young track and field athletes who are in education and may need financial help towards training or provision of equipment.

Kriss Akabusi also attended, making it an amusing, interesting and inspiring evening, with BBC commentators, Stuart Storey and Paul Dickinson, leading the athletes through their careers.

Says Antonio: "It was an enjoyable evening. The Ron Pickering Memorial Fund has sponsored me since the beginning of my career and, when I was put on the UKA Lottery Funding, I had to give up most of my other funding.

"There were some other junior internationals there and I was called up on stage with Daley Thompson and the others and interviewed in front of the audience by Paul Dickenson.

"Daley joked about how I ran faster than him last year to take the National Schools title, which he too won many years ago. He and Stuart Storey (who commentated very enthusiastically on me winning nationals on Sky Sports), were very impressed of my best times of 10.55 and 21.28."

Antonio is currently being coached by Mike Macfarlane (coach of Dwain Chambers among others) and he is making his Great Britain Under 20 debut next month. There are also some International meetings before the Under 20 World Championships in Poland in July (the World Trials are in June).

"Long term, although I will be young (still 21), I want to stand on the podium in Stratford at the London Games in four years’ time," he says.