CHASE SCHOOL student Danielle Hopkins helped Hereford and Worcester to pentathlon glory at the Midlands Regional round of the English Schools’ Athletic Association Combined Events Championships in Derby over the weekend.
Hereford and Worcester’s previous best performance was at last year’s competition when they finished third but this time around they took the gold medal and will now represent the county at the National Championships in Exeter in September.
Joined by Beth Lloyd, (Bromsgrove School), Deanna Clarke (Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester) and Hannah Sahota (Bromsgrove School), Hopkins helped the team win the Junior Girl pentathlon after winning the individual competition with a score of 3,122 points.
Hopkins then followed this up with a personal best of 9.72m in the shotput which moved her up to first place after her specialist event, the high jump.
Hopkins’ total, also a personal best, places her eighth in the UK and is a better points tally than Jessice Ennis-Hill achieved as an under-15 athlete.
The Junior Girls team will be joined at the national championships by Ben Clarke, also from the Chase School, after he claimed second in the Senior Boys decathlon with two personal bests in the discus (32.04m) and 1500m (4m 23.6s) events.
This points total maintain his fourth place in the UK under-20 age group rankings.
The Junior Boys pentathlon team came in fifth overall with Chase School representatives Ash Baywa Leggett (1663 points) and Tom Alston (1644 points) finishing 13th and 14th respectively in the individual rankings.
Elsewhere, the Intermediate Girls team also came fifth overall with Chase School students Ffion Thomas (2688 points) and Ellie Kimberley (2383 points) finishing 17th and 20th respectively.