A team of 25 of the best young Shropshire athletes were heading to Gateshead International Stadium today for the 81st English Schools Track & Field Championships.

They will be competing at the prestigious venue on Saturday and Sunday with Aidan Reynolds from the Thomas Telford School and Becky Fagan from Idsall in Shifnal the team captains.

And amazingly the county team this year contains four pairs of athletes from the same family.

They are Callum and Hayley Rubery, Alex and Josh Burrows, Cameron and Georgia Dixon, plus Huw and Rhys Bevan.

Six members of the team are from Shifnal’s Idsall School and four from the Marches in Oswestry.

The intermediatess and juniors in the team represented Shropshire in last week’s Mason Trophy Inter- County Schools at Birmingham and achieved some pleasing performances in a meeting that is probably the highest quality outside a national championships.

Cameron Dixon won the inter boys 400m hurdles in a very fast 55.4secs, which is the fourth fastest in the country, while Huw Bevan won the inter boys javelin throwing 61.01m.

And the Idsall student still has the best throw in the country this season of 66.74m.

Callum Rubery equalled his best of the season throwing 40.89m in the inter boys discus to finish second.

Adams Grammar’s Max Beeching ran a massive personal best in the junior boys 400m to book his place on the coach to Gateshead, winning the race in 54.5.

Nancy Ndure, another Idsall student, won the inter girls high jump by clearing 1.62m.

Libby Naylor, from Shrewsbury Girls High School, also equalled her best of 46.2 in finishing second in the inter girls 300m hurdles.

In the junior girls age group, Amy Bowen from Charlton School ran a new personal best of 25.8 to finish second in the 200m, while Alexis Newton French (Idsall) and Georgia Dixon (Marches) were second and third respectively in the junior girls 75m hurdles in 11.7 and 11.8. I

Isabel Bradley, another Charlton School student, ran well to place second in the 1500m in 4.52.0, just outside her best.

In the senior age group, Kez Ogden (Walford and North Shropshire College) warmed up for the championships by taking a double gold in the Midland Under- 20 Championships.

They were held the day after the Mason Trophy at the same Alexander Stadium and she won the hurdles and long jump.

Ogden does the hurdles at the English Schools and has a season’s best of 14.8, the same as team-mate Sophie Worrall from Adams, Newport.

Hayley Rubery won the Midland Under-20 discus title with 33.86m, as well as taking the silver medal in the pole vault, the event she does at Gateshead, as she cleared 3.15m – just below her best of 3.30.

Aidan Reynolds, who was second as an intermediate last year, has a season’s best of 58.87m in the senior boys javelin.

He is partnered by James Bell from TCAT who was second in the Midland Under-20 champs with 55.52m, just below his season’s best.

And just last weekend three team members won at the North West Schools Combined Events in Manchester.

Ogden took the senior girls, with team mate Sophie Worrall third, Max Beeching won the junior boys and Huw Bevan won the intermediate boys – all qualifying for the National Finals in Exeter in September.

Anna Oloyede from Corbet, Baschurch, also qualified for the finals.

By PAUL SANDERSON