ATHLETES from Herefordshire and Worcestershire schools took on the best multi-event competitors in the United Kingdom.

They headed to Boston, Lincolnshire, after qualifying at regional events earlier in the year.

In the senior boys’ decathlon, Worcester Sixth Form College student Linton Gardiner was fourth after the first day of competition.

But he moved up into third to take the bronze medal with 6,707 points, narrowly missing out on the silver position by 24.

The category was won by Aiden Davies from South Yorkshire after he totalled 6,844 points.

Gardiner ran 11.65 seconds in the 100 metres for a personal best and did 6.22m in the long jump 6.22m.

He threw the shot 10.72m, managed 1.88m in the high jump, ran 50.75 in the 400m and 14.89 for a 110m hurdles personal best.

Gardiner hurled the discus 38.89m, jumped 3.50m in the pole vault, threw the javelin 47.13m and clocked four minutes 19.75 seconds in the 1,500m.

His total points score was a personal best which placed him sixth in this year’s UK rankings.

Ben Clarke, who attends The Chase School in Malvern, finished the intermediate boys’ octathlon with 4,379 points and in 16th place out of 40.

He went into the competition as the Midlands schools’ octathlon champion, competing in his first year at the age group.

Clarke jumped 5.87m in the long jump, threw 24m in the discus and 34.66m in the javelin for a personal best and ran 53.74 in the 400m.

He did 14.74 in the 100m hurdles for a personal best, jumped 1.67m in the high jump, threw 9.87m in the shot and ran 4.30.69 in the 1500m in another record.

It was another win for South Yorkshire, though, this time through Joseph Hobson with 5,149 points.

Ellie Ravenscroft, formerly a pupil at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, also qualified for the competition in Boston.

She competed in five events but had to pull out of the next day’s competition following an injury.