Silver lining for Perse athlete at national finals
Finn (Year 9) has raced to a silver medal at the English Schools’ Athletic Association (ESAA) Track & Field national finals in Birmingham.
Representing Cambridgeshire in the junior boys’ 1,500m at the Alexander Stadium, Finn carried on the form that saw him claim the Anglian Schools title last month.
He set a personal best of 4min 9.14sec to win his heat by almost two seconds before doing the same again with a time of 4.07:82 as he finished runner-up in the final.
Finn, who runs with Cambridge & Coleridge AC, said: “I’m very happy to have won silver at English Schools and would not have expected this happening beforehand, although I thought I could get to the final.
“I’m very happy with the times I ran. I thought I would have to run faster to get a medal as some people this year have run a 4.05, and I was expecting most to run a personal best, but not many did.
“This might have been because there had been the heat the day before or because most of these times have been run at Watford or Loughborough, which have very quick tracks and pacing events designed for people to run quick times.”
Finn took a tactical approach in both races, sitting on the tail of the leading group before putting in a ‘kick’, lifting his speed to try to overtake the frontrunners in the closing stages.
He said: “In the final, there was a bigger pack, but with one lap to go I sped up in pace, and I was behind two runners when the front two runners accelerated off with 300 metres left, leaving me in fifth place at the time.
“I made my kick with 150 metres to go, passed those two runners and kept speeding up to aim for a good time.
“Although I finished in third, the first-place runner was disqualified for running inside the track around the bend, which put me up to second in the race standings.”
Fellow Perse pupils George (Lower Sixth) and Zara (Year 11) also competed in the ESAA national finals, the latter after being crowned Anglian Schools champion.
George came sixth in his heat in the senior boys’ 1,500m in 4.02:37, while Zara was eighth in the intermediate girls’ triple jump with a leap of 10.71 metres.