STUDENTS from a County Durham college were among winning teams in the Durham Schools' Cross-Country Championships, held in Bishop Auckland.

Darlington's senior boys and girls teams were made up largely of students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

Nine athletes from the college had superb runs over the two-and-a-half mile course for girls and three-and-three-quarter mile boys' course.

The girls' team was made up of Queen Elizabeth students: Gemma Bramley; Carly Smith; Francis Longstaff; Georgina Rutherford; Sarah Hodgson and Michelle Cockburn.

A series of fine performances led to the team winning the senior girls' trophy, which Darlington has not won for more than a decade.

The boys also gave excellent performances and came second in the team event, with Paul Best taking individual second.

The other Queen Elizabeth boys representing Darlington were Daniel Small and Daniel Orton. The other team member was Carl Bedford, from Darlington College of Technology.

John Beilby, head of sport at Queen Elizabeth, said: "An excellent team effort by all, which resulted in the town winning the combined team trophy is a superb result. I am also delighted that so many of our students have been selected to represent the county."

Paul Best, Daniel Orton, Daniel Small, Carly Smith, Georgina Rutherford and Gemma Bramley will represent County Durham in the Inter- Counties Championships at Kirkby Stephen on Saturday.