YOUNG downhill skiers have reached peak performance after beating the best in Britain on the slopes of the French Alps.

Richmond School and Sixth Form College girls took all the major honours at the British Schoolgirls’ Championships despite being the only state school in the competition.

They even defeated competitors from a Swiss girls’ international school despite the obvious training advantages they had with access to snow.

The school entered two teams of three, with two reserves, into the six-day contest in Flaine, France, that featured 47 teams from 32 schools.

They left with ten trophies including first place in the slalom and parallel slalom, second in the giant slalom and first place overall in school and team categories.

The competition got off to the best start on the first day as the A team, Honor Clissold, 17, Katy Jackson, 16, and Cara Websdale, 17, all of Richmond, won the parallel slalom and came second in the giant slalom, missing first place by just 0.6 seconds.

Day two saw them win the slalom race by a substantial margin of nine seconds, which took them comfortably into the overall lead.

The B team, of Mia Cole, 15, Annabelle Wright, 16, and Isabel Bushell, 13, all of Richmond, were bronze medalists in their category.

Britain’s number one skier and four times Olympian Chemmy Alcott presented the prizes.

Team manager Lorraine Clissold said: “It was an amazing series of victories and the girls came away with an incredible number of trophies. Skiing at the school continues to grow from strength to strength.”

Richmond School Ski’s Team trains mainly at Silksworth Ski Slope in Sunderland.