Former Olympic champion Sally Gunnell paid a flying visit to George Green’s school last week to give pupils tips on how to overcome life’s hurdles.
She appeared at the school’s annual awards ceremony held in recognition of pupils’ academic excellence in this summer’s exams.
“Once you start worrying about other people you get distracted from your goal”, she said.
“The trick is to visualise what it looks like to be first and push all other thoughts out of your head.”
Pupils who had starred in the summer’s exams were presented with awards from the hurdler, who won gold in the 400m hurdles at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
The ceremony went ahead despite head teacher Kenny Frederick’s ongoing dispute with exam regulator Ofqual over changes to the GCSE English grade boundaries which left many pupils disappointed with their results.
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