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Young archer on target for Olympic role

The turn of the year saw nationwide anticipation of this year’s upcoming Olympic Games in London. One student at the Sixth Form College who is particularly excited is former Holden Lane High School student James Whittaker, who now studies AS Maths, Physics, Media Studies and Computing. James has secured a role during the archery events at Lord’s Cricket Ground in the summer involving collecting arrows fired during the competition.

“It was so strange on New Year’s Eve watching the fireworks in London”, said James. “There were fireworks displays and constant mentions of the 2012 Olympics, and I thought to myself how great it is that I am going to be there and actually a part of it. It’s really exciting.”

James, who himself represents the county at archery, got involved via his local club. “Our coach heard that the Olympic organisers were looking for young people to volunteer to help out and asked if we would consider it. I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the world’s biggest sporting event.”

Before he was able to confirm his place, James was challenged to raise funds to finance the trip to London. “For a group of 8 of us, the cost was £8000 so we had to find ways to raise cash so that we could go. We’ve had buckets outside Tesco, we’ve been in touch with our local MP who has given us a ‘Tea on the Terrace’ experience at Parliament to raffle and Signal Radio have kindly sponsored me £500 towards the costs of my trip.”

“So far we’ve had 3 days training down at Lord’s”, added James. “We ran a test event to make sure that everything would go to plan, had talks on procedures and we’ve met some of the competitors who gave us archery tips. It is really cool to be getting sporting tips from Olympic athletes. One of the surreal parts though is being told not to speak with the press during the event, it makes you realise how big it is. Sky Sports and BBC journalists will be there but unlike them, we’ll have ‘access all areas’ passes. It’ll strange walking past journalists and we’ve been told to expect questions about proceedings behind the scenes.”