Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council's Chief Executive Denise Park with Matthew Ramsden and his gold medal
Published Wednesday 24 July 2024 at 15:10
Matthew Ramsden brought GOLD back to Blackburn after winning the 5000m at the National U23s Athletics Championships.
The 21-year-old BwD Finance Assistant competed at the Commonwealth Games stadium in Birmingham and beat his competitors with a time of 14 minutes 17.50 seconds.
A couple of months ago he also achieved his personal best time of 13 minutes 48.12 seconds which was 0.12 seconds shy of qualifying for the British Championship Olympic Trials.
The 2024 England U20/U23 and Senior Track and Field Championships took place in from July 19 to 21 and Matthew said he had been training hard away from his desk at the Old Town Hall.
The Blackburn Harriers runner said: “I have been running for nine years and winning the gold medal was brilliant. The time and effort I have put in definitely helped as well as my enjoyment for the sport.”
The former St Bede’s RC High School pupil said that his enjoyment for running started at school and has continued whilst being a member of Blackburn Harriers Athletics Club.
He said: “I have been training since being at school, so this was something that I wanted to do since I was young. To get first place was amazing and I will be aiming compete at this level more often.”
Matthew joined the council three years ago as an apprentice within the audit team. He trains hard every day and dedicates his time to his fitness and is now training for a 5k in Cardiff later next month.
Away from the track Matthew got to enjoy the occasion with his girlfriend but said his full celebrations are on hold at the moment with his family being on holiday.
You can view Matthew’s race here – starting at 3:15:50 on the livestream: England Athletics U20 & SNR Track & Field Champs, SNR Para Champs 2024 – Day 1 (youtube.com)