PORTLAND’S Chris Perham has made it through to the World Elite Junior Championships after finishing third in the qualifier in Nottingham which was combined with the European Cup.

More than 70 athletes started the race and, after Perham completed a strong swim and bike, he was feeling good going into the run.

Leading the pack in the final stage, the Dorset athlete went to pull away from the two competitors alongside him when he fell following contact with a German racer.

But the Portland man showed great tenacity as he got up and chased the pack down in a desperate bid to claim first prize.

He felt comfortable and started to pull away late on in the run.

However, disaster struck again when news came through that his cycle helmet had bounced out of the transition box, leaving him facing a 15-second time penalty.

After waiting in the penalty box he sprinted on, but with only a short distance of the run left he could not claw the time back to claim the spoils.

Nevertheless, the Portland ace’s time of 52mins 24secs was enough to secure him a place on the plane to Edmonton in Canada.

He said: “It was a shame about the penalty and fall as I felt I had energy left in the final stage of the run.

“My placing in this race resulted in second overall for the national triathlon and the points I earned resulted in coming second in the British Junior Super Series.

“But the main goal of the race was to secure a place on the Great Britain team.

“The elite junior race is this Friday and the elite men’s is on Sunday.”