A TRIO of young athletes have won the chance to represent the county in their field.

Darlington youngsters Maddison Wells, 12, Adam Brown, 14, and Layla Bell, 15 all achieved the qualifying standards at the recent Northern Schools Inter-County Championships.

This means they will go on to represent County Durham in the English Schools Track and Field Championships at Gateshead International Stadium over the weekend of July 10.

Maddison will contest the Junior Girls 200m and 4 x 100m relay, Adam will compete in the Junior Boys Shot Putt and Layla will run in the the Intermediate girls 200m.

The athletes are all pupils of Carmel College in Darlington and head of PE Simon Hannaford praised their achievements.

He said: "To have three Carmel athletes in the team made up of the best 35 young athletes in the county is amazing."

“They have all trained very hard and are fully committed to their sport.

“They fully deserve their success.

“I am looking forward to seeing them compete at the National championships and am hoping for some outstanding performances."