A TRIO of local girls have become national champions winning gold medals in the English Junior Fell Championships - and two of them attend the same school.

Katie Ingram and Laura Hughes - who were respective winners in the under 14 and under 16 classes - are both students at St Michael's in Chorley, while the under 12 champion Candy Hamilton from Darwen goes to St Bede's in Blackburn.

The six race series finished with the Sedbergh Hills Race on Sunday, but so dominant were the girls, that all three had already clinched their titles. Twelve-year-old Candy Hamilton has already enjoyed athletic success as a member of Hyndburn's winning under 13 cross country team in the Lancashire Championships, but the year marked her first experience of the fells.

Her father Ian, a keen runner with Accrington Road Runners, has taken her to the Chetham Close 3 Trail Race series for the last three years, and she has won the junior series each time. Following these performances, Steve Ellis, a coach at Bolton, suggested the fells, but Candy didn't begin until the second race of the season at West Nab, which she won. She won the next two races as well, and second place at Latrigg gave her the title.

Like Candy, 14-year-old Katie Ingram of Chorley Harriers missed the opening race of the year at the Wrekin, but with four results to count for the Championship, she reeled off four successive wins to take the under 14 title with one race to spare. After the final race at Sedbergh where she was second, she said: "I feel really pleased to have achieved this. My training has paid off and I would like to thank Ricky Bennett, my coach, for his support throughout the series. "Following her success she has been invited by Norman Matthews, the National Team Fell Coach, to attend a weekend training seminar with the senior England fell squad.

Laura Hughes has been running since she was five years old, and until she was 13 ran with her club Horwich, but did little training. Two years ago she started to train with Norman Matthews.

Last year she was the under 14 English Fell Champion and she has also competed with distinction on the track and over the country. She was second in this year's Northern Championships at 1500m, won the Lancashire Schools Cross Country, and was second in the Northern, fourth in the Inter Counties and sixth in the Nationals. In the Fell Championship she won the first four races at the Wrekin, West Nab, Dodd Fell and Settle Hills to secure her title. After missing Latrigg, she recorded 17.39 at the three-mile Sedburgh Hills race to beat Lisa Richardson by 90 seconds. Lisa, the Chorley AC athlete from Blackburn, won the Latrigg race and shared the silver medal in the Championship. Chorley Harrier Stephanie Snape secured the bronze medal in the under 12 category. In the last race she had a 100m lead on her nearest rival, when she missed the path leading to the finish line. She managed to hang on to win by one second. Her sister Victoria came third in the under 14 race and finished fifth overall. The older girls will compete at Latrigg on August 28 for a place in the three girl under 20 team to compete in Malaysia, and at Thieveley Pike on September 25 there is a trial for the British Championships in Dublin. The team will include four girls in each of the under 16 and under 18 categories.

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