FORMER Southend High School for Boys pupil Alex Short still can’t believe he will be representing Great Britain for the first time at the European Cross-Country Championships.

The 19-year-old Cambridge University student qualified for the under-20 men’s team for the championships in Belgrade with the run of his life at the trial race in Liverpool.

Short took the race by the scruff of its neck, leading from the early stages and only let eventual winner Jonathan Davies and second-placed Matt Shirling pass him as he finished in a superb third place to book his seat on the flight to Belgrade.

“It’s all quite surreal,” said Short. “I still can’t believe that I qualified. The whole race is a blur really, but I know the last lap was very stressful. I kept checking over my shoulder thinking that in any second a whole stream of runners would come past me!

“But there is a switch-back just before the finish and I was able to look back then and see that barring any major disaster I was going to get into the top five. It didn’t sink in properly until I had crossed the line though. It’s definitely a memory that will stay with me for a long time.”

Short will be hoping to etch more happy memories into his mind when he races in Belgrade next weekend.

The race will cap a remarkable winter for the Chelmsford AC teenager who has made the leap from the fringes of the country’s under-20 cross-country runners to the very top.

Short puts that down to an injury and illness-free winter training under coach Phil O’Dell, plus getting to terms with juggling athletics and his studies in physical natural science at Cambridge University.

“Last year I found it hard to manage work and running and my running took a step back,” Short said. “It was tough. I was in university for 45 hours a week last year. This year it’s down to 40 hours and I have organised myself far better. Since starting winter training I don’t think I have missed a session for 10 to 15 weeks. And every long-distance runner needs that base.

“There’s a good group at Cambridge that I can run with too. When I’m at home I usually run on my own but there’s always someone to run with here.”

With a fantastic second-place finish in the Met League just two weeks earlier, Short went into the race full of confidence, highlighted by his decision to hit the front early.

But the teenager from Bicknacre said that tactic was more accident than design.

“I didn’t intentionally go to the front,” he said. “I wanted to get out of the pack because there was a lot of clashes and trips and I wanted to keep myself safe. It was a little un-nerving when no one came with me but it worked out perfectly in the end.”

It was not such a good race for Basildon AC’s Tom Richardson who finished in 57th place.