• Year Three students at Nelson Primary School tasked with designing the front cover of British Athletics’ event programme
• Students offered advice from British Athletics stars Hannah England and Sarah McDonald
• British Athletics Indoor Championships take place at Arena Birmingham on 17-18 February 2018
• Tickets for the British Athletics Indoor Championships on general sale at www.britishathletics.org.uk/events-and-tickets/

Pupils at Nelson Primary School in Birmingham have been given the golden opportunity of designing the programme cover for the 2018 British Athletics Indoor Championships.

Just a stone’s throw from Arena Birmingham, British Athletics stars – 2011 1500m world silver medallist Hannah England and Birmingham’s own Sarah McDonald – visited the year three students of the Primary School on Monday 18 December to offer hints and tips for designing the winning cover.

The students will have the Christmas break to create their cover designs.Following the shortlisting process, an overall winner will be decided by British Athletics’ Major Event Director Cherry Alexander.

Nelson Primary School’s Year 3 Students will also be given free tickets for the 2018 British Athletics Indoor Championships.

The winner will receive a framed copy of the programme with their design, signed by Hannah England and Sarah McDonald and presented to them at the 2018 British Athletics Indoor Championships, trackside.

Chair of UK Athletics Athletes’ Commission, Hannah England said:

“This is a great initiative in the lead up to the British Athletics Indoor Championships coming to Birmingham. Engaging the local community is so important in the sporting world, and being at Nelson Primary School today with these Year Three students has been great fun.

“They are all so excited, and of course determined to win. I look forward to seeing the final entries as well as hopefully seeing them all at the British Athletics Indoor Championships in February.”

Birchfield Harriers and British Athletics star Sarah McDonald said:

“Today has been brilliant, seeing the excitement in these students who clearly can’t wait to get designing. I am delighted that we are encouraging them to be creative, whilst helping to grow the sport of athletics, it’s a fantastic competition.”

The best of Britain will gather at the Arena Birmingham on the weekend of Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 February as they compete for the prestigious honour of being crowned British champion and battle for a place on the British Athletics team ahead of March’s IAAF World Indoor Championships, due to be held in the very same Arena from 1 – 4 March.

British Athletics’ Chief Executive, Niels de Vos said:

“We are delighted to be able to offer local students the opportunity to get involved with athletics and express their creativity and passion for both art and sport.

“Throughout the past year we have seen widespread engagement in athletics, particularly around the both the World Para Athletics Championships and IAAF World Championships in London last summer, and we look forward to hopefully continuing to work with schools in Birmingham over the next year.”

British Athletics hopes to be able to broaden the competition in the summer of 2018 for a number of schools to enter to design the cover for the event programme for the British Athletics Championships, being held at the Alexander Stadium from Saturday 30 June – Sunday 1 July 2018.

Tickets for the British Athletics Indoor Championships are available at www.britishathletics.org.uk/events-and-tickets/.