Two groups of athletes to pay a visit to local schools in the Shaoxing/Keqiao area.

Christopher Bailey, Jeremiah Azu, Halimah Nakaayi and Liam Adcock visited the Shaoxing Sports School, a place where academics are juggled with training for talented athletes in various sports between the ages of 12 and 18.

The quartet were greeted by the head of the school and brought on a tour of its facilities. They watched students train in various sports and some even stepped up to take part, with Adcock, the recent world indoor bronze medallist in the long jump, volunteering to be flipped by one of the judokas, which he described as “pretty awesome”.

At the boxing centre, Nakaayi tried on some gloves and practised some pad drills with one of the students, and after that the athletes went to the track to meet the athletics team. They took part in a question-and-answer session with the students, with one asking Bailey, who won the world indoor 400m title last month, how he deals with nerves. He told the students you “can’t beat yourself up mentally” about falling short in races and that you need to “have faith in yourself”.

Another student asked Bailey whether speed or endurance training was more important for the 400m. “We have to find a healthy balance between both,” he told the teenager. “You don’t have to be the fastest over 200m, but you have to know how to maintain good position through the race.”

A young heptathlete asked Nakaayi, the 2019 world champion, about improving in the 800m and the Ugandan star said: “It’s the training, once you keep on practising, training perfects everything. It’s all about being committed, loving what you do, and doing it with your heart. Don’t rush anything. Take it gradually.”

Azu was asked how it felt to win the world indoor 60m title last month in Nanjing and said: “It was a good feeling. I was excited, and it was in China so I have a special feeling about this country.”

After the discussion, the elite athletes split up to watch the various groups of students train and give them some technical feedback.

“They showed me some of their jumps and they were really good,” said Adcock, who gave students pointers on controlling their rhythm on the final steps before their jump. “A few were trying to jump a little too high rather than jumping for length, and there were a lot of mindset questions from the students. I told them it comes down to confidence, and backing yourself – knowing that what you’ve done in training is going to convert and just enjoying yourself out there.”

Adcock was highly impressed by the facilities at the school and the enthusiasm of the students throughout the morning, with countless requests for autographs and selfies to all the athletes, which they were happy to oblige.

“They were really appreciative of having us there and seemed to be enjoying the information we were sharing,” he said.