Sam Perry, one of the Isle of Man’s leading athletes, has recently begun studying at Loughborough University.

The 18-year-old Northern AC runner enjoyed a breakthrough summer at the 2025 Island Games in Orkney, winning his first two individual medals.

He claimed bronze in the 1,500 metres before going one better with silver in the 800 metres — his time of 1:51.98 in the latter ranking as the fourth fastest run in Games history.

Since first taking up athletics as an under-11, Sam has shown remarkable consistency across middle-distance track events, cross-country, and hill running.

Now training at one of the UK’s premier high-performance environments, he’s continuing to make strong progress.

Sam said: ‘Things at Loughborough are going really well at the moment and I’m really enjoying it here.

‘Training’s been great, and I’m just trying to build some good consistency. I’ll be racing at the Liverpool Cross-Country at Sefton Park in November, but that’ll probably be my only cross-country race this season.

‘For the first time, I’m going to give indoors a proper go and experiment a bit after a good chat with my coach.

‘At the start of January, I’m heading to Valencia for a week-long training camp, and then over Easter I’ll be in Potchefstroom, South Africa, for a three-week camp which will be a completely new experience for me.

‘My coach is Kyle Bennett who is a really nice guy and he’s been a big help. I’ve done two lactate tests so far, which were actually quite fun.

‘The training partners here are incredible. I’m in the performance squad, which required a 1:51 800 metres time to qualify for, and I’m the slowest in it!

‘Being part of performance means I get access to free blood tests, massages, and other support similar to Sport Aid on the Isle of Man, which Loughborough works closely with.’

DAVID GRIFFITHS