TOUGH fell runner Dionne Allan has stormed to her first British title and home international championship at the age of 15.

Leigh Harrier Dionne, is the first club member to collect a national hill running gold and the second to win an England vest this year after middle distance runner Hannah Warburton. Competing in the Junior girls' section of the British and Irish championships over a spectacular course at Keswick, Dionne surprised everyone to leave the national cross country champion in her wake.

Over the 4.1k course she started with a series of steep climbs to the 350m summit of Latrigg Fell and held third place with English vests dominating the top places.

On a fast descent with 400m to go she moved into second spot, then produced a devastating burst with less than 10m to the tape to pass the national cc champ who had led from the gun to bring the winning English team home.

In the open event Rebecca Howarth took second and Dionne's sister Danielle third.

In the girls' U12 non-championship race over 1.6k Abigail Howarth made an impressive debut to finish second and sister Lauren in the U14 open used the race as a hard training session to come home 18th over the 2.6k course.