ARCHBISHOP Lanfranc School sports teacher Steve Knight says he has not seen the turn of pace Olufemi Agbetoyin displays over 800 metres since the days of Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.

Femi, as the 14-year-old prefers to be called, is arguably the star of the school's latest crop thanks to the school's dedicated athletics programme.

Spotted at school sports day last season, he has cut his initial time of 2 minutes 47 seconds to come within a whisker of the Surrey Schools Championship record on Saturday, when he ran 2:03.29, close to the record of 2:00.9, set in 2007.

The time puts the youngster in the top 10 for his age-group nationally, delighting Knight, who encourages anyone at the school who shows the slightest potential.

One might expect a sports college to provide their youngsters with training programmes, guide them in nutrition and diet. But Knight and two colleagues also do mentoring schemes that involve going to the houses of their charges and working out how training will fit in with homework.

And he believes the community is "buying into" the athletics prowess of its youngsters, Femi being an example.

"His church, via the pastor, has collected £240 to support him and I've been able to buy him spikes and equipment," said Knight. "We're breaking new ground."

The street, he says, has a "big influence" on many youngsters in Croydon and those like Femi are being drawn away from it – with stunning results.

"Femi has worked hard," said Knight, who described with wonder how the youngster set his previous personal best. "He was second at the Southern Counties Championships at Ashford, he was well behind on the second lap and he took 35 metres out of regional county runners over the last 200 metres, but just ran out of legs.

"The last time I saw a change of pace like that was Coe and Ovett. It's a simple change of gear that money can't buy. It's really quite exciting."

Agbetoyin, a little taken aback by the comparison after his victory at Kingsmeadow, said: "I could have gone a little bit faster. But I just did my best and that's what I'm aiming for."

He is grateful for his school's athletics programme. "It keeps me out of trouble and that's what it's about. I'm just going to keep aiming for cutting down my time."

During the winter, Lanfranc benefited from a £5,000 grant from the youth sports trust. "We had to have so many ranked athletes and didn't get it the first time," said Knight. "But someone had their finger on the pulse and when we moved up the rankings we got the grant.

"We've been able to put together a little package about diet and nutrition. There's a considerable range of cooking styles, such as African which has a lot of fats."

The school has also gone to St Mary's, Twickenham, where Sport England has a centre of excellence for middle distance runners, to have athletes profiled.

"We've got people coming in to do motivational stuff," he enthused, adding that John Vernon of the Sutton High Performance centre does sessions on the psychology of competition. There are others who talk about time management, between studies and sport.

"Hopefully we've got an overview that gives everybody the chance to achieve their potential and they can contribute to their own training programme."

Teaching children to teach themselves is often an element missing from education.

"Hopefully we will provide them with the tools to do the job," he added.

One athlete surprised Knight on the day, Omar Reid only being entered because his brother Tomara was taking part, but coming second in the junior boys discus with 31.31m.

Shanice Harrison continued to display her 200m prowess, winning her final in 25.60 seconds, a personal best for the South London Harrier ranked in the national top 20.

Taiwo Kamoju, in the 200m junior boys, won his event in 23.73, placing him in the British top 20 and is another success story.

"He's gone from being an ordinary school runner to times that have taken him as high as seventh in the country in a year," added Knight.

And then there is Cameron Smith, still uncomfortable using starting blocks over 100m but still rated in the top three at U17 level in the country.