SPEEDY cross country girls from Canon Slade have added a national bronze medal to their long list of achievements.

The year nine and 10 team finished third in the English Schools Cross Country final at Leeds.

It is the school's best ever result in the competition at intermediate level - their best result at any age group being the national gold its junior team won in 1999.

This years intermediates went into the English finals in confident mood after winning the North-west regional event to qualify for the Leeds showdown.

They just missed out on the silver by eight points, accumulating 108 points compared with the second placed team, which finished on 100 points.

They may have picked up that silver had Amanda Barton not been pushed to the floor at the start of the race.

She recovered to finish in 45th while, ahead of her, Rebecca Fordham finished ninth, Hannah Darby 26th and Jessica Emmett 28th. The non-counting runners were Rebecca Murphy-Bates, 80th, and Kate Holden, 98th.