GREAT Britain international Kate Avery warmed up for this weekend’s World Junior Championships in Canada by winning her third silver medal in the English Schools Championships at Birmingham.

The 18-year-old Darlington College student clipped three seconds off her season’s best to finish runner-up in the senior 1500m in 4:26.86 secs.

The Shildon athlete, beaten by Vale Royal’s Rebecca Craigie (4:24.54), will race over 5,000m in Moncton.

The North-East’s only gold medallist at the Alexander Stadium was Northumberland’s North-East under-15 100m and long jump champion Michael McArdle, who won the junior boys’ long jump with a leap of 6.35m, improving his pb by a huge 17cms.

There were silver medals for Cleveland’s Ashleigh Wood in the senior 100m hurdles (14.32 secs) and Northumberland’s Emma Pringle, who cleared 12.22m in the senior triple jump, while Durham had bronze medallists in Cameron Boyek in the intermediate boys’ 1500m (3:54.76) and Michael Wilson in the junior 800m (2:02.02).

Durham schools champion Georgia Whitfield improved her pb by over a second but was pipped for bronze in the inter-girls 300m.