A HELSBY High School student has raced to a superb cross country double.
Year 10 pupil Jessica Parsons was crowned intermediate girls champion at the English Schools Cross Country Championships, held at Princethorpe College, Rugby, last month.
Not contend with being a national champion, she followed up her achievement by taking gold at last week’s Cheshire Schools Cross Country Championships at Ellesmere Port.
Jessica, who trains at Vale Royal AC with her coach Andy Carter, has been running since the age of eight.
Her role model is Paula Radcliffe and her ambition is to hopefully follow in the former Frodsham Harrier’s footsteps by representing Great Britain at an Olympic Games.
A Helsby High School spokesperson said: “Jessica is an extremely hardworking and dedicated athlete and thoroughly deserves her success.
“Everyone at Helsby is extremely proud of her and her fantastic achievement at such a high level.”
Jessica was joined at the English Schools event by fellow Helsby pupils Kate Merrill, Laura Gardiner, Megan McEverley, Martha Bamber and Rachel Law.
Together they formed Helsby’s intermediate girls team (for Year 9 and Y10 pupils) and a great team effort was topped off by an excellent performance from Kate Merrill, who finished 30th overall.
Helsby pupils were also to the fore at the Cheshire Schools Championships, winning three of the eight races.
Along with Jessica Parsons, Liam Renton (Y13) and Matthew Hulse (Y11) also won county titles.
Georgia Aston-Massey (Y8) finished third in the junior girls race while Patrick Stradling (Y11), Kate Merrill (Y10), Marcus Lythgoe (Y10) and Amy Renton (Y8) all claimed top-15 finishes, meaning they have qualified to represent Cheshire in next month’s inter-counties match against the West Midlands.
