King of Shaves is delighted to announce its sponsorship of athletics (400m hurdles) star Nathan Woodward.Nathan is aged 17 and is from Warwickshire. In his chosen sport of athletics (400m hurdles) his achievements to date include:
British record holder at Under 17 level.
Ranked no. 1 in Europe and no. 2 in the World at his age group, 2007.
Please scroll down to read the latest updates and news from Nathan.
Update: February 2009 from Nathan
I am now deep in to winter training which is going very well. I am currently studying at Loughborough University reading Human Biology which means I am now training with a new group, in a new setting with a renewed motivation for the coming seasons. I have increased my training schedule compared to last year, because I have always been a strong believer in gradual progression, and have never wanted to over-train at a young age, but now at 19 I feel ready and strong enough to cope with larger loads and this is helping me to improve all the time.
I am not competing in the indoor season this year, because I want to ensure that I am ready to perform in the outdoor season where I hope to make the European Under 23 team, for the championships in Lithuania in July. Until then I am going to continue training hard at Loughborough, until I go warm weather training in April, where I will make any final preparations before I start my 2009 season in late April / early May.
Update: June 2007 from Nathan
The season got off to a good start, with my times consistantly better than last years. In my 2nd competition i became county champion at both the 400meters and 400meter hurdles.
I was then invited to run at the loughborough international meeting, where i would have my first real test against some senior athletes, a race in which i ended up winning, in a personal best time of 51.50 seconds. This time beat the standard needed of 52.25 seconds to be selected to run at european junior championships in Holland. Going in to the championships i am currently ranked 3rd in europe (1st in the UK), but i aim to improve my time whilst out there!
Update: 30 April 2007 from Nathan
Having been pleased with what I had achieved last season, I knew that if I wanted to have an even better season the year after, being the youngest in the age group having had to step up an age group then I would need to stay dedicated and train hard.
This was not a problem as athletics is what I love! Having trained 2/3 times a week up until October 2006, I then stepped up the training to 3/4 sessions a week, this still being a relatively light training load, but my aim is to progress slowly with my training as I grow older, and as I hit the senior age group I will be then ready to train full time, knowing I have lots of room to progress even further.
My winter training has gone really, really well, both my coach and I are very pleased with the improvements I have made over the winter, so with my first competition on the 29th of April I knew that I would be OK.
On the day I competed in the 400m, the weather conditions were not the best (it was very hot), but I managed to clock a 53.2 seconds, which ranked me 1st in the U.K. rankings for the U20 age group, so far this year, so now I have qualified for the national championships for my age group and also the national championships for the senior athletes.