Perse runners on course for regional championships

Perse runners hit their stride with many individual successes in the Cambridgeshire Schools Cross Country Championships at King’s Ely.

The competition provided the selection process for the county team, with the top 14 athletes in each category now going forward represent Cambs at next month’s Anglian Schools Championships.

For the first time in around two decades, Perse runners will feature across all eight events – senior (Sixth Form), intermediate (Years 10 and 11), junior (Years 8 and 9) and minor (Year 7) for boys and girls – at the regional championships following a series of excellent performances.

Highlights included Jasmine continuing her impressive recent form by winning the intermediate girls’ race, while Verity and Finn were runners-up in the senior girls’ and intermediate boys’ events respectively. In those same categories, Hebe was eighth and Noah 10th as they also secured their places in the Cambs squad.

Three Perse runners qualified from both the minor races, with Arabella fourth, Emma eighth and Marianne 12th in the girls’ category and George fourth, Torrin eighth and John 14th in the boys’ section.

George came fourth in the senior boys’ class, while Julius and Maddie were eighth and ninth in their respective junior boys’ and girls’ races.

Although they just missed out on qualification for the Anglian Championships, there were also strong runs from Cameron, Charlie and James, who will all be part of the Perse team racing in the intermediate boys’ category at the English Schools’ Athletic Association Cross Country Cup national final at The Grammar School at Leeds in March.