Zach:  Hello there! Well to start with my name Is Zach Burns (Burns being a nickname). I hail from East London, U.K . I’m of mixed heritage where my mum was born in Canada however the black side of the family originates from St. Vincent in the Caribbean, my dad on the other hand is from Hungary but is a mixture of Hungarian, Sicilian, polish and Austrian.

I’ve got loads of personal interests including art, sports, music and most recently fashion. I’m the type of person who has to be involved in something or the other whether it be sport, photography or whichever interest at the present time takes me.

Edward:  Definitely you are a guy into sports! Tell us about it and how do you get in a good shape and what’s the part of body you like most?

Zach:  I’ve always been into sports from a young age, I started out attempting karate but the rigorous stretching routine eventually became too much and a cousin of mine kept trying to tease me saying how I thought I was a power ranger, I was only 7. Through most of my school years I didn’t participate in much sport other then physical education lessons, at about the age of 13-14 I decided that I wanted to take up Ice Hockey.

I spent about a year learning to skate in which I’ve only ever fallen 3 times in my whole life, something I’m quite proud off. Eventually I found a team who I could train with, spent a month or two practicing and quite enjoyed the rough & tumble of it all. At that same time I had my school district trials in track & field which I went along to, I came 1st in the 100m heats then 8th in the final but really enjoyed it and was asked to come training with a good friend of mine. That same year I was going on holiday with my mum back to Canada to visit family and pick up some ice hockey gear as it was much cheaper then in the U.K, I ended up deciding to pick up a pair of track shoes instead and left hockey for athletics.

Trained a year with my first coach, went back to district trials, and dominated the 100m heats, 2nd in the final by a hundredth of a second and also attempted 200m for the first time where I ended up winning by quite a margin.  Trained within athletics up until 2007 training with a range of athletes from club level to elite level but decided to have a rest during summer of 2007 after a horrible indoors to pursue modelling, something I’ve always been told I should do.

My time in athletics has taught me a lot of valuable knowledge about the body, training methods and nutrition. I’m not sure which part of my body is my favourite, I’m starting to become pleased with my quadriceps but I’m trying not to get addicted to building.

Edward:  You are the owner of GB:AP, an athletics website dedicated to showcasing British/senior junior talent. Tell us about it. Why you have decided to create this site?

Zach:  GB:AP was thought of in the bath! Always a great place to think and reflect. One night I was on the msn speaking to my friends and got roped into a joint conversation with some other athletes from Sweden and Brazil.  We was all talking and they found out I made websites, at the time I had my own personal site and they asked if I’d make them one.

Websites take a lot of time and dedication and really I didn’t want to make them a site but then thought (in the bath) how it would be cool to have a site focusing on all 5 of us, hopped out the tub and started work. GB:AP was originally called IAP (International Athlete Prospects) and grew to focus on the talents of a few more athletes from around the globe. Eventually I changed it to GB:AP due to lack of input from those across the world and decided to focus purely on athletes from Great Britain.

The idea of GB:AP was to showcase and applaud athletes of all levels and disciplines for their achievements however big or small it was. It gave athletes at a lower level a platform to read and interact with those elites who they looked up to. It’s gone a little quiet again at the moment but will be working over the next few weeks to bring it back up to scratch for the new 2008/ Olympic season.

Edward:  Let’s focus on your modelling career.Following a pretty dismal indoor track season, I felt like I needed a break to get my life back and do something else, at the time I was training 5 times a week leaving no time for anything else. I thought I’d see how outdoors went but like indoors, pretty bad, minor injuries building up so eventually I got depressed with it all and started looking for ways out. I had a profile on modellaunch and a photographer called Joseph Bleu contacted me, I sent him some shots I’d taken myself and he gave me some pointers on what I could improve on.

A friend of mine Enrique Melin who I knew did modelling asked his photographer Simon Barnes (Hotsnapz) if he’d do a test shoot for me knowing I wanted to get into modelling. Spoke to Simon myself and set up a date to go along with Enrique, first shoot was cool but was funny because I was quite nervous and quiet but Simon thought I knew exactly what I was doing. It went well either way and took of from there really.

Edward:  IMAGE worth more than a THOUSAND WORDS?

Zach:  I’m 50/50 on this one. Image is everything and will sell the product but firstly you need to get the job where your personal manner will decide for you. I said in another feature that I believe in respect and being courteous to those trying to help you. Be kind to people around you and your bonds will strengthen, no one wants to work with someone who’s hard work and also, word travels fast.

Edward:  What would you say is the key to success? In your opinion, what are the upside and downside of a modelling career?

Zach:  In my opinion, hard work, determination, patience and self drive is the key. Modelling to many seems like an easy source of money but they are wrong, I got teased by some of my old athletic squad mates when they found out I quit track for modelling, got called mr gay uk and all sorts but then months down the line they’re asking how to get into it because they want to make some “easy” money.

When I tell them it’s not like that, they kinda back away and that’s the last you hear from them. I’ve been doing modelling since mid april but for me its not all about the money, I enjoy it and have fun doing what I do, obviously I’m at an age where I need to start earning my money to make a living but I don’t expect things to come to me straight away, you have to work for it and earn it. Patience I believe is greatly required because one week you’ll have a job and then nothing for weeks after, it can be boring and depressing but you got to stick to your goals and just sit it out, again with hard work comes rewards.

The ups of modelling? Meeting new people and building new friendships, getting to wear nice clothes and travelling, also the money “when” you do get it. Downsides of modelling? Location shoots in the cold, dodgy photographers and scams.

Edward:  Are you an optimistic person? Do you think we now live in a better world concerning subjects like human rights, sexual behaviour, freedom of speech and religion?

Zach: I can be optimistic, but tend to stick to my own values and beliefs rather then follow suit to everything around me. Religion is a subject I don’t follow too closely particularly because I’m not really religious. My dad’s Jewish, mum’s Christian but I’ve never been brought up to follow religious beliefs how some people choose to, I believe there is a god but that’s about as far as it goes. I do like having freedom of speech to say what I like when I like, everyone should have the right to defend themselves and say what they think, I do.

Sexual behaviour could probably be controlled better, especially in England considering we have the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe.

I’m not one to intrude on everyone’s love life and bedroom activity but believe there’s some pressure to conform to a standard of bedding as many girls/males (preference) as possible to have some kind of status. I don’t conform to that one at all and stay by my personal respects and standards of decency.

VISIT ZACH's BLOG:

http://www.z-burns.blogspot.com

Full name: Zachari “Burns” (insert german name here) , If I told you my real name I’d have to kill you haha!
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