COLCHESTER’S Olympic and Paralympic athletes were honoured at a special reception last night.

Lewis Richardson, 27, from Colchester won a bronze medal in the 71kg boxing category at the Olympics, and Charlie Dobson, 25, took bronze in the 4x400m relay in Paris 2024.

Also honoured was Paralympic high jumper Jonathan Broom-Edwards, 36, who was born in Colchester and trained here.

He came fifth after being given just a one per cent chance of competing after breaking his ankle six weeks before the Paralympics.

Platform - Jonathan Broom-Edwards (centre) said he wanted to share 'the stories' from his career to help young people become more active and help Paralympians navigate their careers (Image: Seana Hughes/CCC) The first audience question came from rugby player Jeremiah German, 16, from Paxman Academy, who asked the athletes how they balanced school and training.

Charlie said he really struggled with training and studying at the same time at university, adding: “Don’t spend all your time thinking about training or vice versa thinking about work.

“Have time to have a life outside of sport and education. That’s really important, otherwise you can get kind of caught up in either of them - and it starts going downhill from there.

Inspired - Paxman Academy's Evelyn Clapp, headteacher Deborah Kershaw and Jeremiah German (Image: Seana Hughes/CCC) The Stanway School's Ed Moxon, 15 – a footballer who also plays cricket at county level - asked what challenges athletes faced and how they overcome them.

Charlie said injuries over the past five years had set him back, and made him question whether he should carry on in sport.

Positivity - Lewis Richardson with mayor Lesley Scott-Boutell. He said he wanted to be a positive role model for current and future generations (Image: Seana Hughes/CCC) Lewis said: “Trust me, the setbacks, the challenges, the injuries, making weight, everything else - it makes the success so much sweeter.

“If it was easy, we really would not appreciate what we’ve achieved.”

Inspired - Stanway School's Maya Lampard (Left) and Ed Moxon (Right) the latter saying he learnt more about 'how to persevere' from the event helping his Cricket  (Image: Seana Hughes/CCC) Lois Thompson, 25, a University of Westminster student who lives in Wivenhoe, asked how they keep their composure before the big moment.

Jonathan said: “A lot of it down to mindfulness for me. Almost going away from what I can feel, what I can sense, to letting your body do the thinking."

Merry - All three athletes said after the 2024 Paris Games, they could relax and have fun this Christmas (Image: Seana Hughes/CCC)Mayor Lesley Scott-Boutell said: “I would really like to thank all the young people who came up and read our questions.

“I would also like to thank our Olympians and Paralympians because, one, you're excellent, and you guys have been real gentlemen - it has been a privilege and joy to meet you.”