13-year-old Billie Jones beat more than 30 other girls to take the top spot for the junior cross country event, which took place at Nesscliffe training camp near Shrewsbury.

She will now go on to represent Wales in the organisation's UK Sports Championship later this month.

Billie said: "I'm thrilled that I managed to qualify for the national championships and to get first place as well was amazing.

"I'm already looking forward to representing Wales in the next competition."

As well as coming first in the event, Billie, of Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen, was also the only girl from Gwynedd to be selected for the national cross-country team.

She ran the three kilometre course in under seven minutes but is confident she will be able to smash that time when she competes in the UK Sports Championship next month.

"I'm one of those runners who will start off slow for the first stages of a race and then try and then sprint to the finish," added Billie.

"When I started to pass some of the other runners I knew I had a good chance of coming in first.

"I'm quite confident I can give the other cadets a run for their money in the next competition."

Last week's event saw more than 200 cadets from across Wales compete for the privilege of representing their country at the UK Sports Championship which takes place in York later this month.

Gwynedd's cadet sports officer Lieutenant Branwen McBride said: "Everybody was very pleased with how Billie ran on the day,"

"She has done not only Caernarfon but the whole of Gwynedd proud.

"We are all confident that she will pull off a good performance at the national finals and hopefully bring a trophy back to Caernarfon with her."