HEREFORD and Worcester Schools’ Athletics Association’s junior girls team will represent the Midlands for the first time at the National Championships later this year.

The county’s junior girls age-group team triumphed in the Midlands round of the English Schools’ Athletic Association Combined Events Championships at Moorways Stadium in Derby.

Their previous best performance was in last year’s competition, which saw Beth Lloyd, now at Bromsgrove School, and Deanna Clarke from Nunnery Wood High School in Worcester, part of the third-placed team.

However, this year the girls were joined by Danielle Hopkins, from The Chase School in Malvern, who won the individual competition, and Bromsgrove School’s Hannah Sahota, as the team clinched gold.

The junior girls will be joined at September’s national finals in Exeter by Ben Clarke, also from The Chase School, who finished second in the senior boys’ decathlon.

Clarke produced two personal bests in the discus (32.04m) and 1,500m (four minutes 23.6 seconds).

The points total maintained his fourth place in the United Kingdom under 20s age group rankings.

Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Herefordshire and Worcestershire all took part in the Midlands round.

The outstanding Hopkins finished first in the pentathlon with 3,122 points, while Lloyd was fifth (2,608), Clarke sixth (2,594) and Sahota 15th (2,218).

Hopkins then produced a personal best of 9.72 metres in the shot put, which helped her move into first place after the high jump, which is her specialist event.

The Chase School pupil’s points total, which was also a personal best, puts her eighth in the UK rankings with a higher total than Jess Ennis had achieved as an under 15s athlete.

The junior boys competed in their pentathlon, finishing fifth in tough conditions. Bromsgrove School’s Sam Roberts finished ninth (1,984 points), while Ash Baywa Leggett, from The Chase, was 13th (1,663), Tom Alston, also from The Chase, was 14th (1,644) and Matthew Griffin, of Churchill Middle, Redditch, achieved 1,411.

The intermediate girls’ team were fifth after Olivia Jones, from Heathfield School, Wolverley, was seventh on 3,794, Ffion Thomas, of The Chase, 17th on 2,688 and Ellie Kimberley, also from The Chase, 20th on 2,383.

Jones also competed last year and was in contention for a podium place this time.

Harvey Munro, from Worcester’s Royal Grammar School, finished 15th in the inter boys’ octathlon, a creditable performance over two days in his first competition at the age group.