SKIPTON Girls High School are celebrating a stunning title double in the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Newquay.

Katie Atkinson won the junior girls race in impressive style with a time of 9min 21sec for the 2,380 metre course and led her school to the team title in her age group.

The success completed a cleansweep of individual titles for Atkinson and team awards for Skipton Girls High School at North Yorkshire, North East of England and now national level, this year

Atkinson, who had finished eighth in last year’s final, knew just how good the opposition would be at Tretharas Academy, Newquay.

The girls had prepared well travelling down on the Friday with the Ermysted’s and Ilkley Grammar School teams who were also competing.

This meant they only had a ten-minute ride to the event on the day leaving plenty of time to walk the course and warm-up.

However, warming-up was not really necessary as the weather was more like a summer’s day than the winter fog that Skipton endured.

The girls had the benefit of an outing at this level last year and were ready for the cavalry charge start.

Atkinson had no option but to be up the front if she was to realise her hopes of victory.Lucy Fryers was also in close order as she hoped for a top ten finish.

The other girls set off well in the top third of the field but knew there was enough time for them to come through for a high finish.

Ruby Firth and Eleanor Root settled in at about 40th on the first of the two laps with Emily Jones and Angelina Bairstow in support.

The second lap saw Atkinson stay at the front but with fewer runners around her. One in contention was team-mate Fryers who was having one of the best runs of her life.

Firth and Root helped each other as they ran stride for stride and moved into the top 30, while Jones and Bairstow held their positions.

The final run in saw Atkinson ease effortlessly clear for what seemed an amazingly comfortable win to say it was a national final.

She was tremendously well supported by Fryers who made it in to fourth place by the end. It was an impressive performance when you consider that Atkinson was eighth in 2013.

Firth gained about ten places in the last half mile to move into 18th, with Root running on well to complete the scoring team in 27th place.

Skipton’s total of 50 points made them winners of the team prize by a staggering 42 points

Results: 1 Katie Atkinson 9min 21sec, 4 Lucy Fryers 9:40, 18 Ruby Firth 9:55, 27 Eleanor Root 10:02. Non scorers: 52 Emily Jones 10:20, 72 Angelina Bairstow. 10:33. Team 50pts.