Chipping Campden School pupil Joel Masters is on top of the world.

The youngster is the fastest 60 metres runner on the planet for under-18s after a blistering run at the England Open Indoor Championships at Sheffield at the weekend.

Joel, who turned 16 last September, scorched to victory in a phenomenal 6.73 seconds. He was competing in the under-17 race, but his time was good enough to establish him as number one in the world at under-18 level.

What makes Joel’s performance all the more remarkable is that he only took up the sport in the summer of 2022.

So how did he get into athletics?

“I ran in the 100 metres in a district competition at the Prince of Wales Stadium, I won it in 11.8 seconds and everyone was saying I should take up the sport,” he  explained.

And while everyone was saying it, it was his mum Zoe who really convinced him to give it a go.

“She said, ‘You should start doing athletics Joel, you should see where it takes you’,” he recalled.

And it’s already taken him a long way because last summer he ran for England for the first time and his long-term goal is to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games.

And while Joel, who lives in Weston-sub-Edge, is obviously a top-drawer runner, he’s also a very decent footballer too.

Football was always his first love. He started off playing for Broadway United before moving to Pershore Town about five years ago.

He’s a right-footed left-winger and has clearly made an impression at Pershore because as well as playing for their under-18s, he’s also signed semi-professional forms for the Hellenic League Division One club.

“I haven’t been able to play for the first team yet because of the athletics,” said Joel.

It’s fair to say that athletics has become his number one sport and it’s easy to see why, because he has a best time of 10.71 seconds in the 100 metres and 21.7 seconds in the 200 metres.

That ranks him seventh and 11^th respectively in the UK for the under-17s but those rankings will almost certainly improve this year as he will no longer be one of the younger runners in the age group.

Joel, who is grateful for the backing he receives from Gloucestershire sporting charity CASS & Friends, is fortunate to have a strong network around him.

As well as his parents Zoe and Keith, he is a member of Be Fit Today Track Academy at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in London and is also coached three times a week by Jon Humphries-Cuff at the Prince of Wales Stadium in Cheltenham.

Humphries-Cuff has played a big part in Joel’s development and so far he has taken everything in his stride, because when he made his debut for England last summer he performed superbly despite being up against some much older runners.

“It was a Welsh international in Cardiff,” he said. “I ran in the under-20 200 metres, I was 15 and I came third in 21.91.”

So what does Joel, who is 5ft 10in and weighs 75 kilos, see as his super-strength?

“My start is one of my strong points but my top-end speed is my main strength,” he said. “I think this summer the 100 metres will be my best event because I’ll be building on the work I’ve being doing indoors in the 60 metres.”

Joel is taking it easy this week after his heroics in Sheffield but he is already looking forward to running the 100 metres at an indoor Open Meet at Lee Valley next month.

And it’s certainly going to be a busy few months for Joel, who will sit his GCSEs in the summer.

“I want to go to the Europeans in Slovakia in July,” he said.

And if he has his way, that will just be the start because he wants to travel all over the globe in years to come.

“I want to turn pro, I want to go to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028,” he added.