JAMES ARMINIO'S BIOGRAPHY

Hello, my name is James Arminio, and I am 17 years old.

I've always known that I was a fast runner, but it wasn't until very recently that I realised I wanted to take it further. In the early summer of 2024, my school offered me a place to compete at the Gloucestershire Schools County Championships. Without any previous sprint training, I finished second overall in the 100m and earned a spot in the Gloucestershire County Schools Athletics squad. Since I had no experience in this kind of competition, it was quite daunting going down to Exeter to compete in the South-West Schools Championships. Nonetheless, I put down a strong time in my heat and progressed to the U17 100m final, where I used starting blocks for the first time and still ran a personal best of 11.35 seconds. Unfortunately, I just missed out on qualification for English Schools, but this gave me the drive to get faster.

At the end of the summer, I reached out to Speed Project Training, based at Gloucester Athletics Club, in pursuit of success. I quickly settled in and set my sights on my first-ever indoor 60m race at the Loughborough Open on the 11th of January 2025. Despite a few injuries and minor setbacks, I trained hard throughout the winter to run the quickest time I could. Loughborough soon came around, and I clocked a time of 7.14 seconds, earning me a place at the England Athletics U15/U17/U20 Indoor Championships in Sheffield




​  



​ 
 ​​

Realising the potential I have, I continued training hard, making sure I was ready for the national championships on the 8th of February. I then competed in Cardiff in the Non Thomas Speed Grand Prix, which was also the South West Indoor 60m Championships. Since I ran the quickest U20 time there, I won a medal and am now the 2025 South West Indoor champion. Next it was Sheffield. Going there was a great experience overall, and although I missed out on the semi-finals by just 0.01 seconds, I set a personal best of 7.06 seconds in an environment I had never experienced before.

Now that my indoor season is over, I'm continuing to train hard so that I can run some really competitive times in the outdoor season this summer.

My goals for the upcoming season are to gain as much experience as possible in different competitive environments so that I am in the best possible position to achieve success at this year’s England Athletics Outdoor Championships and English Schools events.

I am so grateful for the support from CASS & Friends—their help will allow me to realise my goals and become the best possible athlete I can be.