Talented young distance runner Jonathan Harris will compete against the best cross country runners in the state at the NSW Primary Schools Sports Association (PSSA) All Schools titles next month, having finished third at the Combined Independent Schools championships at Eastern Creek, Sydney yesterday (11 June).
The Armidale School Year 4 student ran 7.36 minutes over the 2000m, working his way from the very back of the 91 started to be fifth place at the 300m mark. Around a kilometre into the race he hit the front and remained in the lead until being passed on the final 100m stretch by the eventual first and second place-getters.
“I tried to find any tiny gap and work my way forwards and made my way to fourth when we came to a big hill. I do a lot of hill training with my coach Jay Stone so got into first position running up it, but once I was on the flat track got overtaken by the other boys, who just went flat out.”
Jonathon was one of eight TAS students who were part of the 65-strong North Coast Independent Schools primary and secondary team at the championship, and their only medallist on the day. TAS teammate Sam Jones also qualified for the CIS team to compete at NSW All Schools, placing 12th in the 13 years, over 4km.
Two months ago, Jonathon drew much attention for finishing ninth overall in Armidale’s 5km Campus to City Canter, in a time of 19:16.
