KEIGHLEY & Craven's North of England road relay champions have added national silver medals to their collection.

Having triumphed at Warrington last month, the under-13 girls’ team of Katie Atkinson, Angelina Bairstow and Lucy Fryers proved it was no fluke by making the podium in the English Road Running Association event at Sutton Park, Birmingham.

Coaches Will Smith and Scott Bairstow were thrilled with their achievement, which saw them finish second out of 57 in the National Young Athletes Road Relays on Sunday.

The 3.8km course was much hillier than the North of England course but this suited the trio, who are used to running in the Yorkshire Dales.

Atkinson stuck to the team plan perfectly on leg one, tucking in behind the lead runner. She averaged 5:57-minute mile pace and handed the baton over to Bairstow in second place, just seconds behind Thames Valley AC.

New to this standard of athletics, Bairstow was always going to be the team member under pressure but she kept a cool head. At one point, she actually overtook the leading Thames Valley runner, but was caught by two of the UK’s leading young athletes from Wreake and northern rivals Liverpool AC.

Bairstow kept Keighley & Craven in the race, maintaining her race pace of 6:36-minute miles to hand the baton over to Fryers just 35 seconds behind leaders Wreake and 13 seconds behind Liverpool.

Fryers, one of the youngest athletes in the race, made it an exciting finish for the hundreds of spectators. She paced the first half of the course perfectly and, with just 500m to go, charged past second-placed Liverpool to finish just 12 seconds behind winners Wreake at a 6:08-minute mile pace.

The Keighley girls averaged 6:13 minute mile pace over a combined distance of seven miles in what is one of the most prestigious team races in the country.

Coach Smith said: "The future of athletics in the Keighley and Craven area has never been as exciting.

"There are many very talented young athletes now training and racing for the club. We’ve had occasional national-ranking athletes in the past but to have a full squad of top UK athletes, and now a team ranked second in England – the future looks great for us."