Six athletes from Bradford have been chosen in the West Yorkshire team for the English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships in Nottingham.

Sally Smith and Brit Tate (senior girls), Emile Cairess and Josh Ferguson (junior boys), James Hall (intermediate boys) and Ben Marriott (senior boys) will line-up at Wollaton Park on Saturday, March 19.

The sextet have been chosen after shining at the West Yorkshire Schools’ Cross-Country Championships at Shipley’s Northcliffe Playing Fields last Saturday.

Bradford Schools’ Athletics Association secretary Tony Kingham said: “It is a tough course because of its hilly element and there is usually also a strong wind blowing. Another thing is that it doesn’t drain as well as you might expect.”

Highlight for Bradford was the intermediate boys’ win of Hall, who has already represented Yorkshire in the Inter-Counties’ Championship.

Despite being a year young, he triumphed by seven seconds from Wakefield’s Matthew O’Connor, and helped Bradford to finish third in the team event behind Calderdale and Wakefield.

Bradford also did well in the junior boys’ race with Cairess finishing second and Ferguson fourth, but the team lost out to Wakefield in a tie-break for third place.

Robertson (fourth) and Tate (sixth) kept Bradford in the limelight in the senior girls’ race, while Marriott was fifth in the boys’ equivalent.

Luke Parker (tenth), Jack Thorp (13th), Jack Baker (16th), Eyob Huruy (19th) and Callum Pashley (20th) backed up Marriott to give Bradford second in the team race behind Leeds, while Bradford were third in the intermediate girls’ team event, spearheaded by Zara Knappy’s 14th place.

Lucy Williamson’s 19th place was Bradford’s best in the junior girls’ race, but Kingham added: “I expect West Yorkshire to do well in the English Schools’ event, where we do have a bit of history.

“What impressed me most about Northcliffe was the overall attitude of all the runners. Only about two failed to finish.”