TWO young sports stars from Teesdale have been selected for Team Northumbria’s netball team at the 2018 School Games – a national multi-sport event for the UK’s most talented school-age athletes which takes place at Loughborough University from August 30 to September 14.
Isobel Burgess, 14, and Carla McKnight, 15, both attend Barnard Castle School and play for Oaksway Netball Club.
Carla was also recently selected for the national Scotland U17 Netball Squad.
They will join more than 1,400 athletes who will compete across 11 sports at the School Games.
Netball is one of four new sports to make an appearance at the games this year, along with canoeing, laser run and triathlon.
Organisers say the event will give young people an experience of high-level competition in a multi-sport environment similar to an Olympic or Paralympic Games.
The dale duo will be following in the footsteps of some of Britain’s biggest sporting stars who have competed at the games before going on to senior international success.
Previous competitors include Paralympic champions Hannah Cockroft, Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock, Olympic champion Adam Peaty, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and sprinter Adam Gemili.
At the event the athletes will experience the excitement of competing at the highest level.
They will live in a dedicated athletes’ village on the Loughborough University campus, take part in a School Games ceremony and perform in front of huge crowds of spectators.
