WOKINGHAM school girl Hannah Roberts became a national champion in dramatic style.

The Luckley House pupil won the junior girls’ 800 metres final at the English Schools championships held in Birmingham last weekend.

There was a blanket finish to the race with Hannah, attached to Bracknell AC, bravely holding off rivals from Cheshire and Middlesex with a time of 2min 13:72sec, just a fraction of a second splitting the first three.

Another Wokingham runner to strike gold was the Holt’s Alex Barbour in the senior girls’ 1,500m steeplechase.

The Berkshire champion clocked 4min 54.22sec, more than three and a half seconds ahead of the runner-up from Kent.

Forest pupil Joshua Zeller battled hard to secure a gold medal in the intermediate boys’ 100m hurdles, crossing the line in12:93secs, three-tenths of a second in front of his main rival from Warwickshire.

In the intermediate 1,500m steeplechase, Maiden Erlegh’s Shaun Hudson had to be content with the silver medal.

He led for much of the race, but was passed down the home straight by Adam Searle (Northants) whose winning time of 4min 20.84sec was a personal best by six seconds. Hudson clocked 4.22:61.

Another silver medal for Berkshire came in the senior boys’ long jump with Sam Challis (Charters) leaping 7.05 against the Leicestershire winner’s 7.27.

Jake Norris from Desborough in Maidenhead, set a new championship record in the senior boys hammer with a tremendous throw of 76.84m, more than 10 metres further than the runner-up from Lancashire.

And Berks also took the bronze medal in the same event with Jake Norris, from Park House in Newbury, throwing 63:61.