JOSH PEARSON of St Augustine’s Catholic High School finished in fourth place in the junior boys’ 300m when he represented Hereford & Worcester Schools’ Athletics Association at Gateshead at the weekend in the English Schools’ Championships.
To be one of the 35 team members who made up the Hereford & Worcester County Schools’ team, the young athletes had to make their way through school, district and county competitions and either obtain the national standard for their discipline or gain the attention of the selectors.
The first of three medals of the weekend for H&W came from James Andrews of Droitwich Spa High School who won his 200m heat in 22.75s and went on to finish second in the final, taking the silver medal with a time of 22.74s – a personal best – just 0.34s behind the winner Cameron Sprague from Bath.
It was senior boys’ team members who brought home the other two medals. The U20s 2000m steeplechase saw three seconds separate the top three finalists as Declan McManus from Bromsgrove School took the silver in 5.58.11.
In the U20 long jump, Kings School, Worcester student Samuel Khogali leapt 6.88m to claim a bronze medal.
There were a number of other solid performances as the following school athletes placed in the top eight: Will Richardson (senior boys’ 3,000m, 4th, Baxter College, Kidderminster); Jack Hocking (intermediate boys’ 400m, 5th, Blessed Edward Oldcorne, Worcester); Senior boys’ 4x100m relay, 5th (Kieran Garrattley, Tom Kenwright, Ollie Biddle, Sam Khogali); Hannah Tapley (intermediate girls’ high jump, 7th, Malvern St James).
