Congratulation to the quartet of athletes who have been selected to represent Northants & Somerset Schools at the upcoming English Schools National Championships being held this year at the new magnificent Birmingham Alexander stadium which played host in 2020 to the Commonwealth games.
The Alexander stadium underwent a £72million redevelopment and was completed in April 2022 ahead of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The venue hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as the athletics and para athletics competitions at Birmingham 2022 and has a permanent capacity of 18,000.
U20 Alice Bates, who represented GB twice during 2022 will compete for the Senior Girls over 1500m and heads into the championship as one of the top seeds. Bates who competed at English Schools in 2021 over 3,000m ran a recent superb 1500m PB of 4:22.14, just 0.15 outside of the European U20 Championship qualification mark and is UK ranked 7th U20, and will go into the championship with high hopes of a podium finish.
Alice Bates goes into the English Schools Championships as one of the top seeds
U20 Alice Bennett makes her 4th visit to the English School Championships and is a two times medallist previously winning a Silver medal in 2021, and Bronze medal in 2022 over her specialist distance of 800m. Bennett competes for the Senor Girls and will also be eyeing her third Championship medal, she is ranked 5th in the UK in the SG age group.
Alice Bennett with her 4th appearance at the English Schools Championships
U15 George Mills who only recently started throwing the Javelin in 2022 has shown great levels of consistency and had made big improvements under KTH Throws Coach Lorna Barlow. Mills won the Northants County Schools Championships & followed this up with a fine win in the prestigious Mason Trophy, and recently threw a PB in the KTH open of 45.47 which ranks him 8th in the UK and this will be his first English Schools Championship and his first taste of High level competition at a National Championship.
George Mills will relish his first experience of the English Schools Championships
U15 Jemima Davey heads into her second consecutive English Schools Championships and will be hoping to make an impact and make the final. The Millfield School Student will be representing Somerset where she become County Champion earlier in the year, Davey is stradily improving her times each race and is currently UK ranked 41st.
Jemima Davey with ambitions of making the final in her second appearace at English Schools
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We wish all four athletes the very best of luck in what is the most prestigious National Championship in the athletics calendar.