Cross-country runners from Polwhele House School, Truro, have proved themselves among the best in the country with a national championship success achieved against the odds.

A girls team won the small schools trophy - competed for by schools with up to 50 girls - and finished fifth overall out of 28 teams taking part in the Independent Schools National Championships at Malvern College, in Worcestershire.

Of the original seven Polwhele House team members, one pulled out before the race with a sore knee and two others were struggling with stomach infections and had to withdraw before the race ended.

Of the four finishers, Nina Brooke, of Rock, came in 14th, sisters Rebecca and Bonnie Mably, of Bodmin, were 28th and 49th respectively, and Chelsea Siegel, of Portscatho, was 30th.

The fifth overall position was regarded as an excellent result for a small school, but a check of the scoreboard revealed that they had finished second in the small schools division.

With a five-hour journey ahead of them, the Polwhele party set off for home - slightly downcast in the belief that they had not won the small schools trophy despite such sterling efforts on the day and all the pre-event training.

"What we did not know at that stage," said coach Bob Ingle, "was that there had been a clerical error and we had been placed first in our division after all - a result we did not find out until next morning.

"It was a shame we did not receive the trophy at the appropriate time - but better late than never!"

The Malvern triumph followed Polwhele House's success at St Michael's School, Barnstaple, earlier this year, when a girls team was first in a cross-country event contested by a dozen independent schools from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.