Report by Tom Gayle
A fortnight after producing the run of
her career to date, Emma Jackson along with the 7 others selected after
their performances at Chelmsford competed against the cream of talent from
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the Celtic Challenge.
The day was dominated by England, scooping 15
out of the 16 individual and team medals available. For Jackson though she
was not able to reproduce her form shown at Chelmsford and wound up
finishing in 20th place on her international debut. Although
understandably disappointed, as Kirsty Law, who was just 7 seconds in front
of Jackson at Chelmsford, went onto win the race by just a second from
Wales' Non Stanford, the experience will have no doubt given her the much
deserved taste for international competition.
This is by no means a dampener on what has
been a thoroughly consistent and impressive season and this international
experience will set in her good stead for an assault on the English Schools
Championship 1500m at Nottingham this year. Having already clocked a
personal best of 4:49 at the Schools Inter Counties indoor meeting in
February, well inside the English Schools Entry standard Emma looks set to
go faster over the summer and prove that she is an equal force to be
reckoned with both on the track as well as the country.
Results
Individual
|
1. Kirsty Law |
England |
8.42 |
|
2. Non Stanford |
Wales |
8.43 |
|
3. Stacey Preston |
England |
8.53 |
Team (first 6 to score)
- England 27 (Law, Preston, 4 Danielle
Christmas, 5 Charlotte Browning, 6 Nikki Hamblin, 8 India Lee, 9. Hannah
Jones, 20 Emma Jackson)
- Wales 91
- Scotland 100
- Ireland 107
For full individual and team results for both
the English Schools and Schools International races go to www.esaa.net |
