CITY of Plymouth athlete Emily Bee claimed a bronze medal at the English Schools’ Combined Events Championships in Exeter at the weekend.

Bee’s podium finish came in the under-15 girls’ pentathlon with a new personal best score of 3,243 points.

The 14-year-old Plymouth High School for Girls’ pupil, who was representing Devon, ran 11.24 seconds for the 75m hurdles, threw a PB of 9.51m in the shot putt, leaped 1.54m in the high jump and 5.31m in the long jump and then ran a PB of 2:31.97 in the 800m.

Her success means she will now earn England honours at an international in Ireland in December.

However, there was disappointment for Erme Valley Harriers’ Sammie Harries, who like Bee, is ranked in the UK’s top six in the combined event at under-15 level.

Harris failed to score with the shot putt which meant she finished down the large field.

Jade Simson, in her last schools’ competition, was third going into the final event of the senior girls’ heptathlon, but dropped out of the medal chase with the 800m.

Simson, whose specialist event is the 100m hurdles, ended up finishing eighth overall out of 28 finishers.

The former Plymstock School pupil, who has just started at the University of Bath, ran 14.73m for the 100m hurdles, leaped 1.56m in the high jump, threw 9.56m in the shot, ran 27.41 seconds for the 200m, managed a 5.28m long jump and a 32.56m PB javelin throw before her medal hopes disappeared with a 3:15.87 800m.

Tavistock’s Luke Cressey was another athlete to impress at the championships. He took fifth in a highly-competitive junior boys’ pentathlon with a personal best of 2,889 points.

Cressey ran 11.70 seconds for the 80m hurdles, threw 9.54m for the shot, claimed 5.69m for the long jump and 1.82m for the high jump before running 2:14.80 for the 800m.