BEN West made history with a superb top-ten finish in the English National Cross Country Championship at Parliament Hill Fields.

The Bicester AC runner finished a splendid ninth in the under 17 men’s race – just 46 seconds down on winner, David Stone from Shaftesbury Barnet.

The club said: “This was the highest ever placing by a Bicester AC runner and represents the biggest single running achievement in our history.”

West was also the only Oxfordshire runner to achieve a top-ten finish in the race, which attracted 356 runners.

He covered the undulating 6km course in London in a time of 20mins 15secs.

Bicester fielded full teams in the under 15 boys’ and under 13 girls’ races.

The boys’ finished 40th, the highest Oxfordshire team placing in this age group.

Max Nicolle led the team home with 125th place in the 504-strong field, clocking 17mins 24secs for the 4.5km course.

Samuel Worfolk was 260th (18.27), with Freddie Taylor 320th (18.55) and newcomer Michael Alborzpour 378th (19.30).

In the under 13 girls’ race, run over 3km, Lucy McGrath led Bicester to 48th place with a top-half finish of 217th (14.53.).

Clubmate Imogen Cox came 345th (15.54), followed by Amy Willis in 392nd (16.23) and Imogen Ansell in 467th (21.27).

In the under 15 girls race over a 4km course, Bicester’s Amelia Cox ran another fine race for 167th (17.01) in the 464-strong field.

In the under 13 boys race, Timothy Jones came 431st (14.48) and Sami Singer 534th (16.15).

And Tom Gould contested the junior men’s race finishing 218th, clocking 51.45 for the10km course.