LISA Palmer says selecting the Derbyshire squad for this year's National English Schools Championships was the hardest it has ever been and has backed the county's youngsters to shine.

Palmer, vice chair of Derbyshire Schools' Athletics, travels with the 35-strong team to Gateshead today.

She has been a team manager with Derbyshire for the past six years and is looking forward to seeing the county's brightest young stars in action again.

“It's been described as the mini-Olympics and I think that's the closest thing you can compare it to for junior athletes,” said Palmer.

“The organisation of the event is on another level. When a race is down to start at 1.11pm, you know it will start at exactly 1.11pm. And, if there's a race at 13 minutes past, it will start exactly at that time.

“They have a parade before the event as well and they all have to wear the county kit. There's nothing else like it for junior athletes. It's the ultimate experience.”

Although Palmer refused to single out individuals, there will be several youngsters with genuine medal hopes this year.

One athlete to look out for is Derby AC sprinter Yasmin Miller.

Miller only turned 13 two months ago and is the youngest member of the squad, having qualified for the 75m hurdles, despite being in the lower bracket for her age group.

“It's a fantastic experience for all the athletes but it can be quite daunting, because it's so professional,” said Palmer.

“I think Yasmin will be alright because she's been in a few big races already and has been very successful. It will still be interesting to see how she goes on but I don't think it will overwhelm her.

She added: “There are so many good athletes from Derbyshire at the moment, I've never known it to be so difficult to select the squad. We even seem to have a few really good pole vaulters coming through.”

Claire O'Reilly won triple jump gold for the county last year.

Although ineligible now, she has graduated from the junior ranks in fine style and underlined the high standard of the schools competition by coming within a whisker of meeting the qualifying distance for the Beijing trials, with a jump of 12.43m last month.

“The standard at the schools is extremely high,” said Palmer, a part-time teacher.

“When you see the older boys in the 100m – they are like lightning. It's just like you're watching a top senior race.”

She added: “I'm so pleased to see Claire doing well. I used to teach her so we know each other well.

“I know she's completely changed her technique recently, so it's great that the benefits are starting to show through for her.”

Sky TV will broadcast live coverage of the event for four hours tomorrow afternoon.