A SCHOOLGIRL from Westhoughton has been crowned the nation’s brainiest youngster.

Sharon Daniel was crowned Child Genius 2014 in the dramatic final of the four-week Channel 4 documentary to find Britain’s brightest child.

The Bolton School pupil was one of 20 youngsters chosen to feature in the documentary and on Sunday, Sharon, a girls chess champion, went head-to-head with her eight-year-old rival Tudor — after successfully challenging the judges when they marked an answer she gave as incorrect.

The 12-year-old said: “It was awesome to reach the final of Child Genius. I am overjoyed and elated to be crowned Child Genius 2014.”

She chose the degree level Battle of Stamford Bridge as her specialist subject and proved the judges were wrong for saying she was incorrect for describing the Orre’s Storm as the last phase of the battle.

Her successful challenge took her through to the final where she was the first to get 10 general knowledge questions right.

Sharon, whose ambitions are to contribute to the field of medical science, said: “I was replaying my performance in my mind again before I was preparing to go for the tie breaker and that's when I realised that one of my questions had been marked incorrect when it was correct.

“I was certain that it was the right answer when I was challenging the expert.”

She said her favourite part of the competition was the memory recall rounds where the young people had to memorise the London tube map and two decks of cards.

Sharon said: “This was a chance to try out something that you wouldn't do on a daily basis.

“Swotting up on the tube map was the hardest task because the average adult can only memorise seven stations and I had to memorise 170.”

Following her victory, the delighted youngster, who has already won more than 50 trophies and medals from her chess success, told her parents, who are both doctors, that they would need a new cabinet for her latest trophy.

On the show, she said: “We need a new cabinet for this trophy, I did not think it was going to be this big.”

Bolton School Girls’ Division headmistress Sue Hincks said: “Everyone in the girls’ division is delighted at Sharon’s success in the Child Genius final, which is a tribute to her intelligence, hard work and determination.

"It was clear from the programme what a thoroughly delightful child she is.

"She has studied independently to reach an excellent knowledge of her chosen topic area and her memory skills showed themselves to be outstanding.

"In school, she is strong in all of her subjects and is well liked by her peers.”