STEETON@S Alex Thompson has helped his school to win a national cross-country title.

He was part of the Ermysted’s intermediate boys team which struck gold in the English Schools Championship at Sevenoaks.

They took the title with an impressive total of 57 points as they finished 34 ahead of their closest rivals.

Thompson played his part by taking 15th place and was the third finisher for Ermysted’s in a race where all their runners were taken by surprise by the cavalry-charge start as none of the runners were inside the top 20 after half a mile.

However, their four athletes were bunched closely together, and the determined Harvey Lewis started steadily moving through the field and pulling his team-mates with him.

At the end of the first of two laps Lewis was up to 15th, with Seb Seggar-Stavely, Thompson and Louis Hudson just a few places further back.

The team had the scent of victory and Lewis unleashed a fantastic sprint to finish eighth.

Seggar-Stavely and Thompson had been inseparable for most of the race and the sprint was no exception, but they too had made up places and finished 14th and 15th respectively.

The all-important fourth counter was the Keighley & Craven runner Joe Hudson in 20th place. He had only just returned following an ankle injury in 20th place.

Alice Jones from Lothersdale produced a strong run for Skipton Girls High School in the intermediate girls’ race.

The winner of the recent North-East round set off in determined style and was one of the early leaders despite being at the lower end of her age group.

Jones did slide back slightly but finished in seventh place, giving an indication that next year could well be her time.

Kildwick’s Lilli Carr came 20th as the Skipton Girls High School team finished sixth overall.

Birthday girl Harisah Ghafoor from Keighley spearheaded the challenge of the Skipton Girls High School team in the junior race.

She was well to the fore from the outset, finishing 19th to help her team take ninth position, while her brother Aryaan came 132nd in the junior boys’ race as his Ermysted’s team took 11th place in a field of 27 schools.