Teenage sprinter runs Olympic rings around peers for sports potential

The head boy and star athlete at St Lawrence Academy, in Scunthorpe, is celebrating having been named as the national young person of the year by the Youth Sports Trust.

It is the latest in a long line of accolades that the sprinting star has received.

His career in athletics only started 18 months ago when an broken wrist forced him to take a break from rugby. Since then, he has not looked back.

The teenager has been named as the best in the district at 100 and 200m, been named young athlete of the year by the town’s athletics club and won his school’s sports personality of the year.

His teachers and gold medal winner Darren Campbell – who has acted as a mentor since meeting him at an event at St Lawrence’s – have predicted Nathan could represent his country at athletics.

The Olympic sprinter was part of Great Britain’s gold medal winning 100m relay team in 2004.

However for the school’s staff, it is Nathan’s conduct off the track that has impressed them the most.

He has led assembles at other schools – including primaries – to help inspire young people with the story of his own success and also developed training and diet programmes to help other students reach their potential.

Phill Dalowsky, the director of the academy’s specialism in sport said: “Nathan’s work with young people is quite outstanding, quite phenomenal and is something that I have not really seen in a young person his age.

He added: “His ability to coach, lead, inspire and motivate has been outstanding. Nathan Togun is the most outstanding young person, athlete and role model that this academy has seen for a considerable period of time.”

St Lawrence school principal Joan Barnes said: “He is a brilliant role model.

“He is very talented but when you speak to him he is very humble about how talented he is.”