British Decathlon athlete David Hall starts the girls race

Three secondary schools pitted their skills against each other when they took part in a duathlon at the Cyclopark.

Eighty students - from Longfield Academy, the Leigh Technology Academy, and Wilmington Academy – took part in the running and cycling event.

It began with the under 13 girls race where the Leigh Academy A team dominated from start to finish. Jade Cramer secured bronze with a very good performance and Emily Hancock narrowly took gold from Chloe Bowler in an exciting finish.

The under 13 boys race saw Longfield Academy taking the team prize with James Lee finishing second, Leon Slone third and Jack Morrison fifth. Kavan Swain from the Leigh Academy was the stand out performer, winning by more than 45 seconds.

In the under 15 girls race it was the Leigh Academy B team that took the first team prize with the top three students all coming from the Brunel College of The Leigh. Grace Ladley had an excellent race to finish third, Isio Orugun a national standard sprinter also showed that she has stamina by finishing second and Leah Goss showed her class by winning by more than a minute.

The last race of the day was the under 15 boys race. Wilmington Academy this time won the team award with Nahum Kilbane claiming bronze, Lewis Brogden in fourth and Leszcek Redlicki in sixth.

The outstanding performer in this race was Arran Adams from the Leigh Academy, leading from start to finish winning by 22 seconds from second place Joe Denny of Longfield.

David Hall, a Dartford Harriers and Great Britain athlete, who is currently ranked number one in the UK for the decathlon, was there to start the races and give out the awards in the presentation.