Athletics: Okoros are on track to raise bar for region.Byline: By Leon Hickman THE Okoro family are in the vanguard of a revival of West Midland Noun 1. West Midland - a dialect of Middle English Middle English - English from about 1100 to 1450 junior athletics which coach Tony Hadley believes will be reflected in performances at the English Schools championships in Gateshead this weekend. The region's selectors set all kinds of records by naming six Okoros and three of them, twins Ejiro and Ese, and high jumper Onajite are medalwinning prospects. However, senior high hurdler Edirin will be missing at a junior international match in Mannheim, along with Amy Harris, a current champion and almost certain senior long jump winner. This demands the question of why on earth a junior international should be held at the same time as the English Schools, a competition of lasting prestige, valued enormously by former stars such as Lord Coe and David Moorcroft David Moorcroft (April 10, 1953) was an English 1500 m and 5000 m runner whose career spanned the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was also Chief Executive of UK Athletics from 1997 to 2006 Moorcroft was born in Coventry, West Midlands. , head of UK Athletics UK Athletics is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom. UK Athletics was founded in 1999 as a successor to the British Athletics Federation, which had collapsed for financial reasons. . Absent too will be heptathlete Jade Surman, who is resting after a wonderful exhibition of long jumping at the world schools championships in Greece. Surman ransacked her previous best leaps with a 6.24m clearance that won her the gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize , then came fourth in the 100m hurdles in 14.00 secs, another personal best. Hadley said that with this trio in the team there must have been a chance of regaining the overall trophy, last won early in the 90s. He thought that West Midlands was a barometer of the junior standards which had been in general decline. Now with a younger group of teachers interested in nurturing talent at an early age, there has been a gradual recent improvement. In the past five years, athletes reaching national standards had doubled to 34 and half the entire team were going to their first championships. Men's team captain is former international sprinter Jason John and the women will be led by Sarah Damm, a first-class heptathlete. They will be looking for medal performances from Ejiro Okoro in the 800, Ese in the 300m hurdles, Onajite Okoro, Rob Davies Rob Davies (born March 24, 1987) is a Welsh footballer. He played most recently for the Football League Championship side West Bromwich Albion F.C.. Prior to that, he played for Wrexham A.F.C., and signed for Albion in the 2003-04 season. - who ran a 48.05 personal best in the 400m last week - and Royal Sutton Coldfield's Justine Kinney (400m) and Livvy Kenney (3,000m). From Warwickshire, Nathan Woodward is expected to win the 400m hurdles, having moved to second in the country's all-time under-17s list with a 52.56 secs for a world schools bronze. Sprint prodigy Ashlee Nelson, still only 15, won the 100m world schools gold in 11.68 secs and looks a certainty for a Staffordshire victory. At the other end of the age scale, the British Masters hold their championships over two days at Alexander Stadium. |
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