THE SUN shone on young athletes from Worcester and Malvern taking part in the Midlands Regional round of the English Schools’ Athletic Association Combined Events Championships in Oxfordshire.
Athletes from Hereford & Worcester laced up their trainers to compete against rivals from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the competition at Tilsley Park in Abingdon.
Danielle Hopkins, from The Chase in Malvern, was part of the intermediate girls team which won their age group team competition and will now represent the Midlands region at the National Schools’ Championships in Bedford in September.
Hopkins joined Emma Sherwood (Hagley RCHS) and Hannah Sahota and Daisy-Mai Clements (both Bromsgrove School) to score 1,264 points, 150 ahead of Derbyshire, after going head-to-head throughout the seven track and field disciplines over the two days of competition.
Sherwood also reached the podium in the individual competition, placing third with Hopkins 200 points behind in fourth. Sherwood achieved six personal best performances and Hopkins two, with both their points totals higher than in the 2017 competition.
It’s only the second time Hereford and Worcester Schools have had a team qualify for the national finals; the first being just two years ago when the junior girls team won through, with Hopkins and Sahota part of that squad.
The intermediate girls team will be joined at the finals by James Milburn from Hereford Sixth Form College, who finished third in the senior boys’ decathlon.
Milburn produced three personal bests in the shot, 100m and pole vault and equalled his PB in the long jump. His points total of 5,305 was not far behind the tally he achieved at last year’s national finals.
Amber Hopkins, from The Chase, Malvern, and Louisa De Vos (King’s School in Worcester) were part of the junior girls’ team, alongside Ella Dew, from Stourport HS, as they finished fifth overall.
Unfortunately Abi Timmington from RGS in Worcester picked up an injury whilst competing, so her points couldn’t contribute to the team total.
Willem Humphrey, from King’s School, finished tenth in the intermediate boys’ octathlon, a creditable performance over two days in his first ever full combined events competition.
Redditch’s Matt Griffin (RSA Arrow Vale) had to withdraw with injury, part way through day two, when placed fourth after five events.
King’s Luke Beever and Karnell Nunes-Smith (Hagley RCHS) competed in the junior boys’ pentathlon competition and finished in tenth and 11th respectively.
