The usual route to the English Schools T & F Finals is a little different this year. Last year the finals were cancelled for obvious reasons, but thankfully this year they will go ahead, although in a vastly reduced format. They are due to take place on the 9th, 10th and 11th July at Manchester’s City Athletics Arena and normally athletes would have competed at County and Inter County Championships prior to this, in a bid to achieve the required standard to compete at the finals; but not this year. The plan is for each County to nominate their teams as normal then the top 16 rankings in each track event and the top 12-16 (TBC) in the field events will be invited by the ESAA to compete at the Championship Finals.
As part of the Durham team selection process, an Open Meeting was held at Gateshead International Stadium at the weekend. Durham and Northumberland athletes competed in a bid for team nomination, and several of our juniors were involved. Here’s a brief rundown of who did what…..
Junior Girls 1500m
Zara Jones 4:57.4, Savannah Tarn 5:19.4
Junior Girls Shot Put
Tori Buckley 10.54m
Inter Girls 1500m
Macy Kelly 5:12.15, Mia Wetherill 5:14.0, Emily Vest 5:28.8
Senior Boys 1500m
Adam Russell 4:10.6
Senior Boys 3000m
John Russell 8:56.2
As you’d expect they all gave it 100% against some tough competition, so well done to everyone who took part; there were some top performances that you should all be proud of. Currently we have two young athletes who have reached the nomination stage for the Durham team – Tori Buckley in the Junior Girls Shot and Ashton Harrison in the Junior Boys Triple Jump. Tori’s UK ranking is now 14th after her outstanding throwing today. Ashton, who didn’t compete today, currently lies in 21st in the UK. A nail bighting time as they wait to hear from ESAA. We’ll let you know how things go, but in the meantime, if you want to keep up with nominations for the Durham team you can find details at https://dcsaa.co.uk/
…..and let’s not forget Cleveland! Our Under 20 Harrier, Charlotte Rutter, has been nominated to run for Cleveland in the Senior Girls 100m Hurdles. She’s currently ranked 19th, and like Tori and Ashton she’s just waiting to hear from the ESAA, so we wish all of them the best of luck.
Incidentally, this talented trio have also been selected for the Regional Combined Events Championships at Hull this weekend (26th/27th June.) From there, qualifying athletes will head down to Bedford on 17th/18th September for the English Schools National Combined Events Finals. Good luck to all three of them!