A council finance worker struck gold after winning the 5,000-metre race at the National U23s Athletics Championships.

Matthew Ramsden, 21, a finance assistant at Blackburn with Darwen Council, competed at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham and won with a time of 14 minutes, 17.5 seconds.

Earlier this year, he also achieved his personal best time of 13 minutes 48.12 seconds, which was 0.12 seconds shy of qualifying for the British Championship Olympic Trials.

The 2024 England U20/U23 and Senior Track and Field Championships took place from July 19 to 21 at the stadium, which hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Matthew said he had been training hard away from his desk at the Old Town Hall.

Matthew was competing at the Commonwealth Games stadium in Birmingham

He said: “I have been running for nine years and winning the gold medal was brilliant.

"The time and effort I have put in definitely helped as well as my enjoyment for the sport.”

The former St Bede’s RC High School pupil said that his enjoyment for running started at school and has continued with the Blackburn Harriers Athletics Club.

He said: “I have been training since being at school, so this was something that I wanted to do since I was young. To get first place was amazing and I will be aiming to compete at this level more often.”

Matthew joined the council three years ago as an apprentice within the audit team.

He is now training for a 5,000-metre race in Cardiff later next month.