A TEAM GB athlete from Saltaire has visited his old school for a special training session, fresh off the back of European success.

Emile Cairess, 21, visited Bradford Grammar School after competing for Team GB Under 23s at the European Cross Country Championships in the Netherlands, where he won a silver medal in the team event.

At the school he led a session for students in cross country.

He began running aged four, and competed for the school and Bingley Harriers, and is the reigning England u23s 5,000 metres champion.

Mr Cairess said: “It’s been fantastic to come back to the school.

“Bradford Grammar was very good in giving me a bursary and the teachers were always very understanding if I had competitions and needed to leave early. The school invested in me and I’m delighted to help them in any way I can.

“It was amazing to compete for Britain for the first time, it has always been my goal. This year I’ve trained harder and its been really rewarding that it’s all paid off.

“I got my first taste of competing at the Junior School when Mr Reddish entered me in a race. I came second and got the taste for it from then."

Mr Cairess left Bradford Grammar in 2016 to take up a place at St Mary's College in London to study sports science.

Mike McCartney, lead teacher for cross country at Bradford Grammar, said: “We’ve watched Emile grow as a runner from a young age to where he is now, a very good athlete.

"He’s always had the talent and when he was competing as a schoolboy he was beating people, even though they were doing double the amount of training that he was. We could see that he was going to go places then and we’re very proud of him.

“There’s a really lovely team spirit among the runners at Bradford Grammar. They’re such nice kids and they all really get on together and support each other.”

Mr Cairess is the latest in a line of former Bradford Grammar Students to compete for Team GB, including double Olympic gold-medal winning triathlete Alistair Brownlee, his brother Jonny Brownlee, and Olympic gold-medal winning swimmer Adrian Moorhouse.