Hard work pays off for cross country champ

Georgiana Molloy Anglican School student and promising young athlete Asher Bourke is celebrating his recent achievements as he looks to his next challenge.

Fourteen year old Asher qualified for the School Sports WA Cross Country team before taking out the school cross country competition and breaking the school record in the process.

Proud mum Kristy said Asher, who is in Year 9 at GMAS and is also a Middle School leader, trains 6 days a week with a private coach during the cross country season, and attends Margaret River Little Athletics club in the summer.

She said her son had always been sporty, playing AFL and basketball before taking up cross country running, as well as general athletics before “he just got really good all of a sudden”.

“So that’s when we got him a coach with a proper training schedule, and he’s just excelled from there,” she said.

Training and competing with the Margaret River Little Athletics Club for the past three years and working with his coach for the last 18 months, Asher has seen an impact in his results.

In Year 8, he won the GMAS Cross Country competition, and then went on to win the SSWA SSWA Interschool Cross Country in Bunbury.

“Then this year he competed in Perth to make the SSWA State Cross county team,” Kristy said.

“Only 5 boys his age made the team.”

Asher is also set to complete in the National Cross Country Championships, which are held in August in Yarra Glen, Victoria.

Before that, he faces his next competition at the Athletics West Cross Country competition, on July 27.

“This is to try and get into the State Cross Country team for Athletics West, [with the competition] held in Tasmania in August, if he’s successful.”

Another late July meet will see Asher take on the 2024 SSWA interschool Cross Country, once again in Bunbury, before he heads to Victoria.

Kristy said her determined son was thriving thanks to a strong athletics scene and strong sporting community in the region.

“Asher likes the challenge of the hills and terrain you have to run on for cross country, and the people you are able to meet and build relationships with, especially other country kids from around the state.

“He also runs weekly with the Dunsborough Running Club with the adults, which he really enjoys.”

As he works hard to hopefully achieve a podium finish at a national level in the next few years, the high achiever also has his sights set on an even loftier goal.

“He is also busy as a student pilot, and aims to have his private pilot’s licence by the age of 16.”

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