Our future Olympic star continues to shine!

Having dominated the middle and long distance athletics events in the summer, we encouraged Yaried Alem to join Leeds City Athletics Club. With support from his coach Mr Lisgo, and all the staff here at Mount St Mary’s, Yaried has made a huge impact on the world of cross country running.

He began running in the Leeds city school events, easily winning all of his races. LCAC then began to take him to county level events, where again he easily won against athletes from across west Yorkshire. At the start of January Yaried ran in the Yorkshire championships and placed second, narrowly beaten by the UK number 1, an incredible outcome considering he had only completed a total of five cross country events and was up against well seasoned runners that included both U15 and U14 runners (Yaried is U14!). On Saturday 27th January Yaried competed in the North of England championships, on the journey up he kept saying to his coach, “Today I beat the UK number 1 boy”! He ran a fantastic race and placed third overall, but he was the first U14 across the line with first and second being U15 runners. Yaried had beaten the number one ranked runner at his age group in the whole of the country! He will now head to Pontefract on 16th March to run in the National Championships. If he places in this race, which he has every chance of doing, he would be selected to run for England at international level! Not only is he super talented but after each race I receive a report from his coach saying what a humble and respectful young man Yaried is, he always helps pack up the team tents after races, supports the younger runners when they are getting ready and sometimes jogs round the course shouting encouragement to them.

Well done Yaried!