Born to Sprint: The Journey of a National Champion
Meet Grace Bomba, one of our Kirkby year 12 students who has recently become an athletic national champion. Grace became a national athletics champion in August 2026 within a 4×4 relay championship where her team completed the race in 3 minutes 51 seconds. Grace competes with Liverpool Harriers & AC who are an Athletic club based in Wavertree Athletics Stadium. They were established in 1882 and welcome athletes aged nine upwards. Possibly the most notable athletes that have come from this club are Anyika Onuora and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. At the club, members train with qualified UKA coaches covering all areas of athletics. Grace has also competed regionally for Merseyside which she described as her best achievements. She has competed at many more events including competitions in Sheffield, Manchester and Preston where she represented Merseyside.
Grace has been a sprinter all of her life but one of her first memories she has was at just eight years old when she competed in a 600 meter race. Throughout the race, Grace remembers she ‘wanted to cry’ and ‘cried the whole way around’ but with some encouragement from her mum telling her to “just run” she won the race.This meant a lot to her as her parents have been one of her biggest inspirations throughout her athletics career with her mum being a 800 meter club record holder and father also having a background in athletics in hammer throwing.
LLS was Grace’s first option after GCSE’s for her further education. Grace told us her reason for this was because she thought LLS had many unique opportunities and experiences that she could not get anywhere else. This includes the Global Coaching Conference where Grace will have the opportunity to network and meet students from all around the UK and Northern Ireland. LLS was also a good opportunity for Grace as we offer a flexible timetable which allows her to train and compete while also focusing on her qualifications.
She has described her first couple of months at LLS as amazing, fun and being everything to her. Her tutor, Josh Holt, has been credited as being incredible with fulfilling their time and giving lots of support whenever it is needed. A big part of her time at LLS so far has also been Grace’s classmates who have been amazing to be around and have so much confidence. Within her two years at LLS, her biggest aims are to take all opportunities offered to her which include Alicante and the Fitness Expo in February and take every opportunity before it is too late!
Grace has also taken on the recent opportunity of being a content creator at Kirkby and has already gone with her class to Finch Farm to capture media of her fellow students gaining coaching experiences. Finch Farm is a training ground based in Knowsley, Merseyside where Everton and Everton Women carry out their training.
Grace is one of our students who has a very promising future in front of her as a national athletics champion and we would look forward to seeing what she gets up to in the next two years at LLS.
If you want to have the same opportunities as Grace, click the button below to look at our multi-sports programme now and apply for 2027!
