We wish the best of luck to Ella Palmer & Emily Williams who will be proudly representing the Harriers & their Northamptonshire County in the English Schools National Championships on Friday 10th & Sat 11th July at the Gateshead International athletics stadium.
The ESAA National Championships are the pinnacle of the sport for school age athletes and it’s the 4th largest athletics event in the World... staged each year since the 1930’s.
Organised entirely by volunteer teachers, they bring together the best athletes in each County in England to compete for the honour of being the best athlete in the Country at their event.
Entry to the event is by virtue of athletes being selected by County Team Managers to represent their County. Prime consideration is given to performances at County Championships which are normally held sometime around the 2nd week of June, but other outstanding performances at other events may be taken into consideration.
Nearly all the UK Olympic Athletics team members have featured in the ESAA Championships and there is a rich history associated with these championships.
16 year old Ella Palmer, a former Heptathelete who only converted to Middle Distance 11 months ago with a view to improving her speed endurance for 300/400m, has shown real determination in working on her endurance. She has thrown herself into a hard Cross country season, and has blossomed into a fantastic 800m/400m athlete knocking a phenomenal 13 seconds of her 800m time so far this season. Ella has also succeeding in improving her raw speed setting impressive PB in the 300m & 400m. She dipped under the qualification time in only her second 800m, and again bettered the time by over 2 seconds in her 6th race at the prestigious Mason trophy event, and she goes into the ESAA championships in terrific shape, ranked 24th in the UK, and will be looking to gain valuable experience for future years at the top flight in the sport. Based on her remarkable improvents over the last year she undoubtedly has much more to give as her endurance levels improve.
13 year old Emily Williams who joined the Harriers after being slightly disgruntled from her former club immediately showed huge potential as an endurance athlete and in 2014 as a top year U13 she was ranked 4th in the UK at her specialist event of 800m. Against stiffer competition as a bottom year Junior girl (U15) she shown she can more than match her older rivals and has worked particularly hard following a fractured foot last Christmas to work on her endurance over the latter part of the cross country season. Emily set a qualification time by nearly two seconds in her opening race of the season, and has been peppering the 2:17/18 mark consistently all season and goes into the ESAA championship ranked 21st in the UK and also in terrific shape. This is her first taste of high level track competition so she will be looking to soak up the atmosphere and gain valuable experience for the future….which looks very bright indeed.
You can watch Ella & Emily in action by viewing the ESAA championships on a live video stream from VINCO, www.runjumpthrow.com/ Emily competing in the Junior Girls 800m heats is racing at 4:15pm on Friday 10th July & Ella immediately follows her at 4:30 in the Inter Girls 800m heats. Top two qualify for the final on the following day from each of the 3 heats with the two fastest losers.
Kettering Town Harriers is rightly proud to have two athletes representing the club and we wish them the very best.