HEREFORDSHIRE and Worcestershire returned with a team trophy from the English Schools National Track and Field Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium.

Top-eight positions ensured the junior boys topped the category D listed counties team competition in hot conditions with 13 points.

Medals eluded the two counties' 24 young athletes who qualified after impressing at district and county level.

Ben Brinsdon (Heathfield Knoll School, Wolverley) and Emma Sherwood (Hagley School) narrowly missed out on a podium place with fourth in the junior boys' 300 metres and intermediate girls' high jump respectively.

Brinsdon ran a personal best of 36.25 seconds in his heat to qualify for the final and then another national standard time.

Sherwood recorded a height of 1.69m and will represent England Schools in this weekend’s international event against Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Her team-mate Danielle Hopkins (The Chase, Malvern) also qualified for the intermediate girls' high jump final and finished seventh with a leap of 1.66m.

Sherwood and Hopkins were the joint girls’ team captains and the intermediate group were third in their category.

Dylan Menhennet (John Kyrle High, Ross-on-Wye) finished in the top eight with a PB throw of 41.91m in the junior boys' hammer competition.

Another junior boy Mandras Kyeremeh (Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat School) qualified for the 100m final, finishing eighth in 11.69.

The boys’ team captain Dan Banks (Tudor Grange Academy, Worcester), in his sixth and final English schools championships, qualified from his heat in 11.21 to reach the semi-finals of the senior boys' 100m where he placed seventh.

In the same age group, George Beardmore (Royal Grammar School Worcester) finished sixth in the 2,000m steeplechase.

Also competing at the nationals were Callum Brassington-Meehan (Pershore High), Nathan Biggs (North Bromsgrove High), Luke Richardson (Arrow Vale RSA Academy, Redditch), Josh Robins (Trinity High, Redditch), Matt Burke (Bromsgrove School), Nikita Gotthardt-Mills (Ridgeway Academy, Astwood Bank), Poppy Elton (Malvern St James), Lily Saxon (Ridgeway Academy), Natalie Hatfield (Bromsgrove School), Lily Fennessy (St Mary’s High, Hereford), Stewart Greenhalgh (South Bromsgrove High), Matt Griffin (Arrowvale RSA Academy), Dan Kimber (King Charles, Kidderminster), Sarah-Jane Ollis (The Chase), Deanna Clarke (Nunnery Wood High, Worcester), Oliver Gould (Worcester Sixth Form College) and James Milburn (Hereford Sixth Form College).