Former Bedford School pupil to compete in Tokyo Olympics

A former Bedford School pupil is set to represent Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics in August.

Ethan Vernon - who left the school in 2018 - has just found out he will take part in the track cycling Team Pursuit.

Ethan, who competed in the 2018 Commonwealth Games while he was still at school, will form part of the star-studded GB cycling team.

He said: “I was absolutely buzzing when I found out about Olympic selection. It’s only now that it’s starting to sink in – upon receiving emails regarding travel arrangements to Tokyo.

"We are going out to win, as I’m sure every nation is, but we are reigning champions from the previous three Olympics in this discipline, and we are looking to make it four in a row.”

His cycling career started on the BMX track at the tender age of four.

A sport he adored and which he would continue to the age of 15 with a title of British and National Champion, and European number two under his belt before switching to road and track racing.

From here he went from strength to strength and when he smashed 2.5 seconds off the world record in the Commonwealth Games aged just 17 years old, he knew then that his dream of competing in the Olympic Games was well within his grasp.

Ethan will form part of the men’s endurance squad and will be joined by Ed Clancy, Ethan Hayter, Matt Walls, and Ollie Wood.

Ethan’s former school housemaster, Laurence Holt, said: “I am delighted to hear that Ethan has made the team.

"He is such a lovely young man and absolutely driven to do his best.

"In his upper sixth year, he once arrived a few minutes late to my lesson on a Saturday morning, but the mood soon lightened when he explained he had cycled to school via Cambridge which was a 90-mile ride. He had left home at 5am to fit it in.”