TOP county school athletes from Hereford and Worcester travelled to Gateshead this weekend to compete in the English Schools’ Championships coming away with three medals.

To be one of the 35 team members that made up the Hereford and 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 medal of the weekend came from James Andrews from 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 22.74 seconds, a personal best and just 0.34s behind the winner, Cameron Sprague from Bath.

It was senior boys team members who brought home the other rwo medals. The under-20s 2000m steeplechase saw three seconds separate the top three finalists with Declan McManus from Bromsgrove School taking the silver in 5.58.11.

In the under 20 long jump Kings School, Worcester student, Samuel Khogali leapt 6.88m to claim a bronze medal.

There were a number of other solid performances with the following school athletes placing in the top eight.

St Augustine's Catholic High School runner Josh Pearson came fourth in the junior boys 300m, while Baxter College's William Richardson did the same in the 3,000m.