He just successfully bounced along from the 3rd ring to the 6th, known as 3-6-Bell. Hvar town centre, Croatia, was holding lots of nervous anticipation, bustling with crowds of tourists, spectators and athletes from all over the world: The Spartan 2024 100m World Championship was under way.

Here is Jonny's story: 

As we go towards the end of my first racing season as an obstacle course racing athlete, it’s nice to look back at how far I’ve come and measure my goals for next year’s racing season. It was around this time last year where I did my first obstacle race (OCR) at the 3k British Championships in the Midlands. My friends pulled me along to give it a go, so I didn’t really have any expectations out of this race, just to feel and have fun. I didn’t realise I had signed up for a competitive race, I thought it was an open race. Wet, cold and muddy the course was, the majority of athletes slipping and falling on obstacles, I managed to keep a clean run and checked out coming 1st place in my age category. At the time, I didn’t know the gravity of the situation and how that race affected my following year, but later I was told that my first-place win, qualified me for the British OCR National Team (as it was a team qualifier event). With this news, I learnt that I would be racing and representing Britain in Italy at the European OCR Championships and in Costa Rica for the World OCR Championships in 2024 the following year. Wait what, my brain was thinking. Well, now I had to take this seriously if I were to represent my country and compete on a world class stage. 

For the rest of that winter, I prepped and set up a crowdfunder to financially support me in undertaking the task of getting ready for these upcoming comps. The level of support was immense: friends, family and colleagues, without it I would have never been able to afford getting into the sport. I had to undertake national races to build my confidence and grow my knowledge of the sport itself, gain more experience on obstacles, and learn new techniques, tactics and methods preparing, racing and recovering. I entered in to Tartan Warrior, my first OCR race event for 2024 and my first since the 3k Champs last year – God, was it awful. The cold of Scotland in early March got to me and I struggled to grip the obstacles, and wading through rivers and ditch-dunks got me even colder. I did not perform well, and I questioned my place amongst these hardened athletes. I left Scotland down and uninspired.

I entered another race not long after (literally a week) in the Midlands for The Obstacle Gym’s “Duel” event – a 1 mile head-to-head obstacle race. Here I raced head-to-head with Daniel Titcomb, winner of the 2023 OCR Series, and later Dave Peters, a World Obstacle registered OCR Coach and the head of Rumble Racing (an OCR racing team). Tough competitors, I came away on a podium 3rd place position. This event lit my fire again to push further into my training.

The crowdfunder support was keeping me accountable and focused ahead of the summer season. I was training here and there where I could, in climbing predominantly and upping my running back in from 0% to 2-3 times a week. I used to run all the time when I lived in the Lake District and whilst going to Windermere School, however since moving to Manchester over 5 years ago, my running has not kept consistent. It was only when I returned to the Lakes where I got out and ran.

I was navigating my training on my own and I found at times it was hard to remain accountable as the training got tougher. I found myself questioning whether I was on the right track, whether I was leading to injury, or whether I was doing enough. I needed some help. I noticed some of the higher elite athletes all had coaches, if I was to take this seriously, why shouldn’t I have a coach? I began speaking to Dave Peters over the course of a few months as I raced in simulations around the country, preparing for my first international event: The European Championships.

International racing is a completely different scale to racing nationally, it just feels different, the style is different, the competition is different. The Euros was in the Italian Dolomites (so instantly I wish I had trained a bit more in the Lakeland fells), beautiful but tough. My experience in the Euros was my base marker for my training plan, but I officially only began my official training plan a few weeks before the World Champs in Costa Rica.

Now its not all about medals and podiums - it’s a big element to racing and competing of course – and I’ve experienced both defeat and gold with multiple podiums, but for this article, I mean, the opportunities that have derived from “playing athlete” -  I have featured in “Cumbria Life” Magazine on my sporting endeavours, my races and selections have taken me across the globe, I was invited to train/test with Pentathlon GB as they prepare for the 2026 Olympics and I was approached to audition for a leading sporting brand’s commercial. I’ve made so many friends along the way, I’ve been invited to train with the Filipino team over in the Philippines, train at the Ninja Cave in Italy, and try the military obstacle race in Norway. Next year is looking exciting, I have clear goals I would like to achieve in my next racing season with the support from my coach. And now that I have attained a successful sponsor, these aims are far more manageable.

The funny thing is, had I not taken this small 0-hour “in-between” job at Total Ninja to balance my acting and performance work back in 2022, I would never have developed the skills to support these new sets of opportunities around OCR. It’s cool to look back and see how the little things can make the biggest impact on our lives and the paths we take. The important thing to remember is to make the most out of every situation, even if there seems to be no “benefit” or “purpose” behind it, we never know what might unfold. We can be surprised, just be open to embrace what may come.

Remain curious, and see where your next opportunity will take you. A 0-hour minimum wage job took me to many countries and representing Britain in a sport that I now love. My foundations from my experience at Windermere School have supported my outlook in taking on challenges and getting comfortable in the uncomfortable. Opportunity goes hand in hand with change, we need to accept change to fully embrace opportunity.

Windermere School taught me to opt in, not out and to grab the opportunities life throws at us.