THE best Herefordshire and Worcestershire County Schools’ athletes competed at the prestigious Alexander Stadium on Saturday at the annual Mason Trophy, an Inter Counties Schools’ competition.

Hereford and Worcester again finished fifth amongst the 10 counties that took part,with Nottinghamshire, and only two points off fourth -laced Northamptonshire.

The county also record more points than last year.

A number of athletes managed to also obtain the English Schools’ qualifying standards and secured themselves a place in the Hereford and Worcester Schools’ Athletics Team for the English Schools’ Track and Field National Championships being held in Gateshead in a few weeks’ time.

Droitwich High School’s James Andrews secured his place in the team by winning the 200m Junior Boys race in 22.81s while Josh Pearson from St Augustine’s School, Redditch, placed second in the junior boys 300m in 33.63 seconds.

Jack Hocking from Blessed Edward Oldcorne School, Worcester, took part in both the intermediate boys 200 metre and 400m achieving the qualifying standard in both.

He placed second in the 200m in 22.65s and third in the 400m in a time of 49.21s.

There was frustration for two athletes as their performances were within a hair’s breadth of their qualifying times but, after such solid performances, were awarded places for the National Championships.

Oliver Gould from The de Montford School, Evesham finished fifth in the 200m in 22.83s where the qualifying time was 22.80s.

Ewan Proctor from The Bishop of Hereford’s Bluecoat School ran 24.01s in the Junior Boys 200m where the standard was 24.0s; he finished in fourth place.

It was a win for the junior boys 4x100m relay team who ran within the qualifying time in 46.05s.

The team was made up of Josh Pearson (St Augustine’s, Redditch), Jed Douthwaite (Whitecross School, Hereford), James Andrews (Droitwich High School) and Ewan Proctor (The Bishop of Hereford’s Bluecoat School).

In the 4x100m junior girls relay the team also achieved the qualifying time, finishing 5th in 51.51s.

The team was made up of Romaya Warburton (St Bede’s Middle School, Redditch), Florence Ikpeme (Bredon Hill Middle School), Beth Lloyd (Alvechurch Middle School) and Emily Kavanagh (Blessed Edward Oldcorne School, Worcester).

In the field, Bewdley High School’s Ellie England leapt 5.16m in the junior girls long jump to finish fifth and secured her place in the national championships.

Hannah Tapley from Malvern St James School finished third in the Intermediate Girls High Jump with a height of 1.64m to secure her place.

Bromsgrove School’s Candy Lockett threw 49.18 to place fourth in the Intermediate Girls Hammer Throw.

Meanwhile Bromsgrove School’s Declan McManus competed in the England Athletics U20 Championships on Saturday in Bedford and claimed the National Title in the 3000m Steeplechase, winning the event in 9m.05.5s.