Jess outlines her Olympic potential

OUNDLE School's Jessica Varley outlined her future Olympic potential with an excellent performance at British School's Biathlon Championships at the University of Bath training village.

The 12-year-old finished fourth in her age group just 24 hours after competing in a cross-country race at Wollaton Park in Nottingham for her school

Varley, a former pupil at Stamford’s Copthill School, qualified after finishing third in the year 8 girls Eastern region competition in Peterborough.

The disciplines involved were a 50m swim and 1000m run. Points were awarded for the times achieved and the highest combined score won. 

Varley swam well in her first event, equalling her personal best time.

However, this was only good enough for 35th position and she then had a four-hour gap to try and stay focussed before the run.

Because of the number of competitors, the races were seeded depending on times in qualification and Varley’s race was the second to last in her age group.

Having watched and timed the previous races, Varley knew she had to run significantly faster than her personal best time in order to finish in the top six which was her aim having finished 13th in 2007.

Her heat proved to be the fastest and most exciting of the day with three girls neck-and-neck for the whole 1000m and no-one prepared to relinquish top spot.

The photo finish saw Varley secure second in a time of 3min 7sec, a personal best by four seconds.

The results were posted within 30 minutes of finishing the run and Varley was delighted to have risen to fourth position.

The Peterborough Athletics Club runner is competing in the All-England Schools cross-country championships in Liverpool on Saturday, running for Northamptonshire schools.

She is competing for Cambridgeshire in the inter-counties cross-country championships at Nottingham the following weekend.

The sporting all-rounder is a member of Burghley Pony Club and has been competing in the Pony Club tetrathlon since she was eight-years-old.

Louise Barnwell, head of girls games at Oundle School, said: “Jess is a very able all-round pupil whose dedicated and hard-working approach is reflected in her excellent results in competition.

“She is a credit to the school and we will be supporting her all the way, we hope, to the Olympics some time in the future.”

Joanna Varley, Jessica’s mother, is a former England 800 and 1500m runner, Great Britain lacrosse player and cross-country runner.

She said: “We are very proud of Jessica’s talents and achievements and admire her dedication to training, plus the focus, determination and time management skills she has acquired at such an early age.”