It’s not every day you get to warm up with ex-professionals, but that was certainly the case for Raha International School’s promising athlete Yamato Hokari.

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes, ambassador to Daman ActiveLife, was the special guest at New York University Abu Dhabi’s first indoor track meet of the season and Hokari was among the youths to receive tips from the Briton.

With the event attracting talented competitors from a wide range of groups including NYUAD, Abu Dhabi Striders and Daman Future Champions programme, it was always going to be tough. But having gone through a series of warm-up drills with the specialist 800m and 1,500m ex-runner, Hokari duly impressed.

Coming up against 11 strong runners in the 800m, the 13-year-old showed no signs of nerves and ran a solid race, finishing second in 2 mins 49.49 seconds.

Principle Iain Colledge was thrilled by Hokari’s achievement and predicts it’s the start of things to come for the season ahead.

“As one of the leading and largest schools in Abu Dhabi, Raha will be enhancing and expanding its competitive sports programme over the coming months to ensure that Raha become one of the best in the city,” Colledge said.