A student beat 5,000 competitors to a top position in the British Biology Olympiad final, scoring himself a gold medal.

Eric Edmond, a Year 13 pupil at St Albans’ School, battled through countless tests to get to the last 16.

The final hurdle of the competition took place at the University of Warwick, with three days of practical tests and an exam paper in the School of Life Sciences.

Eric was one of five boys from the school commended for their biological knowledge, with four other pupils being awarded gold medals in the previous round.

To add to Eric’s success, he has just secured himself a place at Oxford to study medicine.

Eric’s biology teacher at St Albans School, Ms Jenny Crouch, said:

“It was an extremely good group but Eric has always shown himself as a particularly good student. He is very deserving of his place at Oxford to read Medicine.”

The British Biology Olympiad is open to all post-16 students in the UK.

Gold medals were awarded to students as a result of their first round scores and of those, 121 students were invited to take a more demanding paper. Only 16 were selected to take part in the finals held at Warwick University.

Dr Mark Downs FSB, chief executive of the Society of Biology, said: “It is vital that we inspire young people to become tomorrow’s biologists so I am thrilled to see the standard of this year’s competition.

“Amidst claims that A-levels are becoming easier we have shown the high standard that school pupils are still achieving.”