BEN West secured his third top-ten finish in a national event in as many weeks when competing in the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Leeds.

The Bicester AC runner once again demonstrated he is one of the country’s leading long distance runners for his age group.

Competing in the senior boys, raced over a 6,800-metre course, West came a splendid sixth in the 312-strong field.

His time of 23mins 6secs saw him finish just 43 seconds behind the winner Matthew Willis and led the Oxfordshire team to a respectable midway placing in the standings.

He was easily the county’s best finisher in the six events.

Clubmate Max Nicolle was 97th out of 339 in the intermediate boys’ event, clocking 19.24.

Amelia Cox, enjoying her best cross country season, produced another strong performance in the junior girls race over 3,100m.

She came 137th out of the 342 finishers, in a time of 12.47 and was the second scorer for the Oxon team that finished 38th.

Oliver Conway, in his first full season, was 315th in the junior boys’ race, clocking 17. 03 for the 3,800-metre course.