Former world cross-country champion Dave Bedford, chairman of Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, was a proud onlooker as his son Tom was among five athletes from the club who ran superbly in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships at Cheltenham on Saturday.

Caroline Walsh was Shaftesbury's star, leading all the way to win the girls' senior title with club-mate Claire Campbell, a year younger, fifth.

And Bedford, Sophie Koehne and Richard Williams all qualified to run for England in the Schools' International at Durham on Saturday April 4.

Walsh's outstanding form this season saw her finish third in the UK U20 trial at Cardiff last week to earn a trip to Marrakesh for the World Championships on Saturday, March 21.

And although heavy rain had made the muddy 4.37 course a severe test of stamina, Walsh dominated throughout, and held a 10-metre lead with 200m to go.

Somerset's Amber Gascoigne did close the gap late on, but Caroline held on in a nail-biting finish to win in 15 min 40sec, with Gascoigne two seconds behind.

They were well clear of Louise Kelly (Cumbria), winner of the UK trial, who clocked 16min 22sec.

Walsh is off to Portugal this week for a spell of warm weather preparation for the world event.

In swashbuckling style reminiscent of his famous father,14-year-old Tom Bedford gamely tried to make it all in the boys U15 race over 4.8km.

Representing Hertfordshire, he looked likely to succeed until edged out in the closing stages by A Tshaye (Surrey), who clocked 16min 40sec, with Bedford a mere five seconds behind and J Geary (Leicester) four seconds further back. They were a long way clear of the rest of the field.

"I'm happily astounded how well he ran," said Dave, who took his first steps to world-wide fame as a lean, bespectacled pupil at Whitefield School, Cricklewood, and went on to become world 10,000 metres record-holder and run in the Munich Olympics..

. "I was 73rd in my first schools' national championship, and I thought Tom would do well to finish in the top 30. I never finished second in the nationals - third was my best," added Bedford, now marketing director of the Flora London Marathon.

Richard Williams, one of the youngest competitors in the boys' U17 race, excelled to finish sixth, and Sophie Koehne's eighth in the girls' U17 run was another fine effort.

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