12:29pm Monday 6th July 2009
LEWISHAM shot put star Curtis Griffith-Parker will head to the Aviva English Schools track and field championships this weekend as the man to beat – but insists he will handle the pressure, writes Richard Anderson.
Griffith-Parker, 18, lived up to his growing reputation recently when he won gold at the English under-20 championships with a throw of 18.65m.
The Christ the King Sixth Form College student, who won gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in India last year, will head to Sheffield as the overwhelming favourite but has vowed to live up to the hype.
“It’s another big competition and I can’t wait to get to Sheffield to show what I can do,” said Griffith-Parker, who is top of the shot put rankings in the under-20s.
“I’ve had quite a good season so far and I want to make sure that it continues at these championships.
“I know I’m more than capable of winning there it’s just a question of making sure I perform well on the day and that everything goes to plan.
“If I do that, then it should be a good weekend for me. I won’t prepare any differently for this event because I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself and the way everything has been going there is really no need to.”
And the Cambridge Harriers starlet believes his latest taste of the big-time will be a huge boost as he continues to press for a place at London 2012.
This weekend’s championships will be shown live on Sky and Griffith-Parker added: “There are a lot of top quality athletes competing and I always want to test myself against the best as they will help me continue to improve.
“It’s a big stage to compete on and I always learn a lot of new things for the future when I go to events like this.
“It’s great preparation before we head onto the senior circuit for those major events but I’ve still got a lot of hard work to do before I think about that.”
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