THREE Falmouth boys, Alexander McCartney, and brothers Harris and Elliot Mier, travelled to Bedford to compete for Truro School in the Intermediate Boys English Schools Cross Country Cup National Final on Saturday.

Along with their team mates Finn Birnie and Ben Norton, they were in confident mood having beaten the reigning champions, Reading Bluecoats School, when winning the south west regional final last month.

In the high winds of storm Desmond, on a challenging 4.5km parkland course, they faced 140 runners from the top 24 teams in the country, and they didn't disappoint.

Harris and team mate Finn kept up with the leading group from the start but broke away from them with 800m to go. Finn eventually pulled away to claim his second national individual title (he won in 2013).

A certain Mo Farah won this title in 1997! Harris, a year younger, was close on his heels to claim a superb second place, improving on the third place he gained in the junior final last year.

The teams remaining scoring positions were made up by terrific runs from Alexander (13th) and Elliot (65th). In most years, their team score of 81 points would have been enough to win the national team title but they were just pipped to the line by St Anselm's College, Merseyside (73 points) with Sevenoaks School, Kent (120 points) in third place. Having beaten many established cross country schools in the final, this has been a great season so far for this Truro School team following the County U15 team title they won at Newquay last month.