CORNISH FIRM HELPS KATIE, 17, BID FOR OLYMPIC GLORY

OLYMPIAN FEAT in the making! Truro athlete Katie Knowles receives three new pairs of training shoes from David Worlledge (right) and Jacques Egbers, joint managing directors of sponsor Lowena Homes Ltd, of Redruth. With them are the staff at Lowena Homes and The New Homes Company.

Promising young Truro athlete Katie Knowles, who made her England debut as a cross country runner last year, has been given a big helping hand by a Cornish company on her road to Olympic glory.

Katie, 17, has been awarded a sponsorship package initially worth more than £1,500 by Redruth-based Lowena Homes Ltd.
Hers is one of several sponsorship awards to be announced by the firm – from a total of well over a hundred applications - after its public invitation to Cornish sports people and organisations to apply for such support. Katie, now in her final year at Truro School, finished first last year when she represented England in the under-20s women’s race at the International Cross Juan Muguerza in Spain
She is currently ranked sixth in the UK and 16th in Europe as a first year under-20 over 3,000 metres with a time of 9.30.

Katie was chosen for double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes' exclusive mentoring initiative for talented young female middle distance athletes

Until now, all Katie’s transport and occasional overnight accommodation for her athletics competitions has been undertaken and financed by her father. Katie who is coached by Chris Wooldridge and her father John Knowles himself a former runner for Cornwall and South West England.

The pair have also travelled to France for altitude training with Chris Wooldridge, who originally coached Katie in Cornwall and has kept in regular touch with her since moving across the Channel. Chris Wooldridge is currently back in the county to oversee Katie’s training leading up to the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh in March and to work with Katie so she can achieve the qualifying time of 9.20 for the World Junior Track & Field Championships later in the summer to be held in Poland.

(Right) John Knowles' Renault Megane has covered most of the UK transporting Katie to various international events

“I am disadvantaged by living so far west, in Cornwall, and I must travel many hundreds of miles if I am to compete at the higher level and continue my progress in sport,” says Katie, who is part of the National Endurance Squad. “The Lowena Homes sponsorship will make a real difference and enable me to compete in a good half dozen extra events in 2008. The help with overnight accommodation will also mean that I can be better prepared.

”It also means I can focus more clearly on my prime objective of succeeding as a senior athlete competing for Great Britain.

“My goals include representing Great Britain in the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh plus the 2016 Olympics and possibly the London Olympics in 2012, although I may still be too young then.”

Her sponsorship package for 2008 includes approximately £600 towards travel and accommodation, a year’s-worth of fortnightly massage, supply of three pairs of training shoes, plus ongoing promotional support.

Lowena Homes managing director David Worlledge commented: “It has been a very difficult task to make the sponsorship selections from so many worthy applicants, but Katie struck us an exceptionally talented and committed young athlete.
“We are a fast-growing company. As we expand, so we want to build on our community involvement by making a real difference to the prospects of promising young Cornish sports people. In other words, let’s grow together!”

A member of Bristol and West Athletic Club, Katie’s recent achievements also include finishing third in the under-17s at the National AAA Championships over 1,500m and second in the under-17s at the UK School Games over 3,000m. Her progress is also being monitored by Professor Andy Jones, a physiologist based at Exeter University, and Martin Rush, a UK Athletics performance manager.