PORTLAND Secondary College Year 10 student Harry Looker has made big strides in cross country running over the past few months, qualifying to travel with an Australian squad to the United States to compete against college runners in late September this year.

Looker said his invitation was the culmination of several lead-up events, starting at a school level and progressing from there.

“It started at our school events, then went on to interschool, regional and finally state,” he said.

“Fortunately, I ran a quick enough time at state to get an invitation to travel to America.”

Despite his lofty achievements in cross country, Looker said he is a relative newcomer to the sport, having never taken any coaching in it.

“I’ve never really focused on cross country all that much, I’ve generally just stuck to my footy and basketball,” he said.

“My parents are both good athletes, dad did the same thing as I’m doing now except in high jump, that must be where I get it from.”

Given his lack of specialised coaching to this stage of his development, there is a distinct opportunity for Looker to improve significantly over the course of his time abroad.

“It should be a great opportunity for me to learn from my peers as well as the coaches that will be travelling with us, I’m looking forward to it,” Looker said.

The races will primarily be over a three to five kilometre distance, with Looker saying this is where he feels most comfortable.

“I’ve done longer runs, up to 15 ks, but that kind of distance is what seems to suit me the most,” he said.

In saying that, he said he doesn’t want to take the experience all too seriously, adding that he expects to do a whole lot more than just run races.

“Hopefully I can make some new friends and just enjoy what’s on offer over there… I want to do well as a runner of course but I think there’s more to it than that,” he said.