Leslie Parkes, aged 16 years and a member of the Portsmouth Ward, recently achieved two gold medals at the England Schools Athletics Championships in Birmingham, representing Hampshire. His specialist event is throwing hammer and in a high quality event featuring all of England's top ten throwers in his age group, Leslie produced a throw of over 60 metres to win the gold medal. Later in the competition, Leslie won a second gold medal, this time in the sprint relay.
Leslie is a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood and is highly respected at Church, in the athletics community, and also at school where he achieves good grades. He continues to attend his Church meetings and youth activities, and has completed two out of four years of daily early morning Seminary, a scripture study programme for youth aged 14-18 years.