CITY athletes excelled at the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Schools’ Track and Field Championships at Nunnery Wood Sports Complex.

Eight county titles were won by athletes representing Worcester and they now compete in the prestigious Mason Trophy on Saturday at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

Dan Banks, of Tudor Grange, was the junior boys’ 100-metre champion and Christopher Whitehead’s Will Godwin took the 80m hurdles honours.

Blessed Edward pupils Siobhan Glover and Declan McManus won the inter girls’ 80m hurdles and inter boys’ 3,000m respectively.

The inter girls’ 1,500m and 3,000m titles went to Nixie Turner, of Royal Grammar School Worcester.

The school also enjoyed success in the 300m in 42 seconds and long jump in the same category thanks to Ellie Ravenscroft.

Three pupils from Malvern St James Girls’ School exceeded expectations, including successfully smashing a long-standing county record.

Fifteen of their girls were picked to represent Malvern district and year nine’s Hannah Tapley led the way in the junior girls’ high jump, beating the championship and county records with 1.6m.

Natalie White, of year 11, claimed the inter girls’ javelin with a winning distance of 29.4m.

Year 13 student Saska Ingham achieved a personal best and finished first in the senior girls’ long jump with 4.81m. She also won the senior girls’ 400m in one minute 4.4 seconds.

Sarah Ellis was second in the inter girls’ 1,500m and Hannah Nolan third in both the junior girls’ shot putt and discus.

Tapley, White and Ellis all qualified for the Mason Trophy on Saturday. Last year’s county event was cancelled due to torrential rain and a flooded Nunnery Wood athletics track but the sun shone throughout this time.

A strong senior girls’ turn-out led to a number of championship bests and national qualifying efforts.

Emma Crooke (Hereford) broke the hammer championship record with 39.22m and won the discus with 40.10m ahead of Worcester’s Elise Bue who already has the English schools’ qualifying standard.

In the high jump, Ella Gibbons (South Worcestershire) beat the championship best with 1.70m.

Heather Paton (South Worcestershire) set a new record of 14.6 in the 100m hurdles.

In the sprints, Zoe Styles (South Worcestershire) won the 100m and the 200m in 25.5.

The trio combined with Georgina Greenwood, the triple jump victor, to record 48.1 in the 4x100m relay to leave them fourth in the national rankings behind just the Great Britain juniors and two club teams.

The senior boys started with a championship best peformance by Thomas Fellowes (Hereford) in the hammer of 51.43m.

For the intermediate boys, the South Worcestershire highlights were a sprint double by Tom Kenwright, including 22.7 in the 200m, and performances of 1.90m (high jump) and 14.0 (100m hurdles) by Linton Gardiner.