Ian Kennedy reports
Emily Shaw’s excellent form this season has been recognized by English Schools selectors. She is one of only six English girls selected for the World Schools Cross-Country Championships scheduled to take place in Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia. Emily will be racing at altitude. Lakeside in Strbske Pleso is at 1347m, but the surrounding mountain peaks of the High Tatras are in excess of 2500m.
The athletes fly out via Krakow on Saturday 18 April and they return on Thursday 23 April. The international race takes place on the Monday, and the team will be in action again on the Wednesday in the ‘Friendship Relays’.
So far this season Emily is age-group Dorset Athletics Association Cross Country Champion, Dorset Schools Country Champion, she was third at the South of England Cross Country Championships and fourth at the National Cross Country Championships. This is not the first time Emily has worn an England vest. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she represented England in the cross-country home internationals, and last summer competed in a track home international having become English Schools 3000m Champion in July. Emily went on to win the 3000m in the meeting in Dublin. She first competed for Wimborne AC in the summer of 2016 as an under-13.
