Durham Athletes All Set For Schools ‘olympics’

DURHAM ATHLETES ALL SET FOR SCHOOLS ‘OLYMPICS’

Durham County have selected 32 athletes for the English Schools’ Track and Field Championships at Birmingham at the weekend.

The three-day event will see the elite of schools’ athletics compete in what is known as the Schools’ Olympics.

West Wearside, which combines Houghton and Washington, can stand proud with five athletes selected and three are from Houghton Kepier School.

Durham Athletes All Set For Schools ‘olympics’.

Easington are also celebrating, with two athletes on the team bus after qualifying through the tough qualification rounds and achieving the English Schools’ standards.

Philippa Ellis (Park View, Chester-le-Street), who competes in her speciality in the Junior Girls’ 75m hurdles at Birmingham, won the Junior Girls Pentathlon at the English Schools AA North East Regional Finals at Middlesbrough.

She now qualifies, along with her Durham County Schools team mates, for the English Schools’ finals at Boston in September. She led the competition after the first two rounds (hurdles and shot putt) but trailed the leader, Chester-le-Street athlete Grace McGlone by 204 points going into the final 800m.

Estimates suggested a margin of approximately 20 seconds would be required to overturn the lead. In the final event, the Houghton Harrier stormed home in the 800m in 2:34.9 to score a total of 2819 points against McGlone’s 2797 following her 2.55.6 performance.

Both girls will now go onto the final for Durham, along with Emily Salmon (Durham City Harriers) and Kosi Iuora (Chester-le-Street).

Houghton Harrier Will Bellamy goes into the English Schools’ Championship in good form after clocking a personal best for 1500m (4.14.80) when winning the C race at the British Milers’ Club paced races at Chester-le-Street on Monday. Clubmate Nicole Phillips also ran well when winning the G race in a time just outside her best (4.52.20).

The Durham team for Birmingham is:

Junior Girls: 800m - Lydia James (Oxclose Community Academy), 1500m - Emily Chong (The Hermitage Academy), 1500m - Nicole Phillips (St Bede’s), Peterlee), 75m Hurdles - Philippa Ellis (Park View, Chester-le-Street).
Intermediate Girls: 200m - Rachel Bennett (Barnard Castle School), 800m Catherine Roberts (Hummersknott School), 1500m India Pentland (Barnard Castle School), High Jump - Ella Murray (Thorp Academy, Ryton).

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