MALVERN’S Ben Clarke won a silver medal at the English Schools Athletics Association (ESSA) Combined Events National Championships in Exeter.

The Chase School pupil was runner-up in the Midlands event in June and has qualified for the nationals for Herefordshire and Worcestershire as a junior, intermediate and now a senior.

The competition was close but, after seven personal bests in 10 individual events of his decathlon, Clarke finished second with 6,517 points.

The battle for gold was only decided during the last lap of the 1,500 metres in the final event with Oxfordshire’s Timothy Stephens scoring 6,598 to take the title.

Danielle Hopkins, also from The Chase School, Deanna Clarke from Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester, and Bromsgrove School’s Beth Lloyd and Hannah Sahota were in the junior girls’ competition.

Hopkins won the individual regional championships and this was the first time a Herefordshire and Worcestershire schools’ team had reached the nationals.

They finished fifth overall in their pentathlon with Essex winning.

Hopkins scored the most points for the two counties and finished 13th out of 45 competitors.