England Athletics - Nitro Athletics Selection

England Athletics is pleased to provide information regarding selection for the England Nitro Athletics Team.

Nitro Athletics is a new international sports entertainment competition developed by Athletics Australia, which will aim to transform traditional athletics into a series of high energy, competitive, and exciting night events featuring Australian and international stars including Olympic Champion and global star Usain Bolt.

The competition is team based, with Australia competing against, amongst others, a Jamaican select team, China, Japan and England. England has been specifically invited as the sporting rivalry between Australia and England resonates strongly with the Australian public.

Dates of the three night competitions are Feb 4th, 9th and 11th 2017, with the final meeting designated as the series finale. The England team will fly to Melbourne on January 27th arriving in Melbourne on January 28th. The team will return to London on 12th February 2017.

This is an opportunity for athletes to be part of an exciting new development in athletics as well as gain experience of travel and acclimatisation ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018.

Click here for more more information on Nitro Athletics.

Details

• The Nitro events will be 3 hours (including a half time break) of action packed athletics with innovative and traditional events packaged as an entertainment competition.
• Teams consist of 12 men and 12 women including one male/one female para athlete.
• There is a strong development focus to the competition from Athletics Australia alongside more established senior competitors.
• There is a very strong TEAM ethos attached to the event with an expectation that athletes may be asked to cover non-specialist events if required.
• There is also an expectation that athletes can operate independently and work with team coaches over the period of the trip.
  • International travel costs will be covered (UK to Australia)
  • Accommodation and competition travel costs in Australia will be covered
  • An athlete per diem of Aus 75, for subsistence is payable, which will be the limit of EA’s costs to cover athlete expenditure in Australia.
  • Athletes requiring accommodation for early morning flights from London and those not able to get home after arriving back in London will have accommodation arranged for them.
  • Team Kit for competition will be provided.
  • No other expenses will be paid for.

Athletes needed to make up the team:

Selection

England Athletics are looking for expressions of interest from Senior and U23 athletes who want to represent England in this innovative competition. Athletes must understand the team nature of the concept and the potential requirement to compete out of event and the need to be relatively independent while training through the time away. They must also recognise that they will compete 3 times in short succession following a relatively short turn-around from arriving in Australia to actually competing for the first time.

England Athletics want to take the best TEAM it can to this event and will balance the mix of athletes according to all of the events, not necessarily the best performer in a single event with the aim of scoring the most points. Selection will be based on this and against

• Performances from the 2016 ranking lists.
• Performances in National and International Competition in 2016
• Head to Head Performances in National and International Competition in 2016

Subject to final confirmation, England Athletics is seeking nominations from athletes in the following event categories:

• Sprints and Hurdles (100, 200m, 400m, 100mH, 110mH)
• Middle Distance (800m, mile, 1500m)
• Throws (javelin)
• Jumps (long jump, pole vault)
• Para-Athletics Track (ambulant, wheelchair)

if you are interested in this opportunity please contact Andy Day on aday@englandathletics.org with contact details of yourself and your coach, indicating which events you can cover.

The closing date for expressions of interest is 11th December with selection on Monday 12th December.

Martin Rush
Head of Coaching and Athlete Development
Andy Day
Head of Competition
England Athletics