Three reigning champions have been named in Oxfordshire’s team for the Aviva English Schools’ Track & Field Championships at Gateshead on July 6 and 7.

Emma O’Hara (Larkmead, Abingdon) struck gold in the intermediate girls’ hammer at the north-east venue last year, while Cosima Berry (Tudor Hall, Banbury) won the high jump.

However, both face tougher tasks this year after moving up to the senior girls’ age group.

The third 2011 champion in Oxon’s 25-strong team is Henley College’s Philippa Rogan, who has switched counties after winning the senior girls’ high jump for Berkshire last year.

Eight of Oxfordshire’s team have achieved national standard qualifications.

O’Hara and Headington’s Simi Fajemisin, who goes in the junior girls’ long jump, together with Abingdon’s Peter Barnshaw (senior boys’ 400m hurdles) and Radley’s Blair McCallum (senior boys’ 200m) have produced performances well in excess of the national qualifying mark.

Kathryn Woodcock (intermediate girls’ discus), and intermediate boys’ Matthew Gain (200m), Christian von Eitzen (800m) and Ed Burgess (100m hurdles) have also bettered it.

Oxfordshire will also be defending their Tonkin Cup team title, awarded to the most successful minor county.

OXFORDSHIRE’S TEAM

Boys

Senior – 100m: J Dorrian (King Alfred’s). 200m: B McCallum (Radley). 400mH: P Barnshaw (Abingdon).

Intermediate – 100m: L Grieveson (North Oxon Academy). 200m: M Gain (Lord Williams’s). 800m: C Von Eitzen (European). 100mH: E Burgess (Cooper), O Boughen (Gillotts). Discus: T Napior-kowski (Blessed George Napier). Javelin: R Curtis (Cokethorpe), E Wilson (Blessed George Napier).

Junior – 100m: Z Smith (King Alfred’s). 1500m: N Jones (Abingdon).

Girls

Senior – High jump: P Rogan (Henley College), C Berry (Tudor Hall). Hammer: E O’Hara (Larkmead).

Intermediate – 100m: L Waknell (Cokethorpe). 300mH: G Sunderland (Larkmead). Discus: K Woodcock (Our Lady’s).

Junior – 800m: M Humphreys (Chipping Norton). High jump: A Cross (Cokethorpe). Long jump: S Fajemisin (Headington). Shot: L Chantler Edmund (Cherwell). Discus: A Herrington (Gillotts), D Garden (Cheney).