Finn Valley athlete James Kelly has been chosen to represent team Ireland in the European Athletics DNA Competition on February 5th.
Dynamic New Athletics or DNA is an innovative, team-based competition concept for athletics created by European Athletics to complement the classic athletics format which will be held at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow on February 5th, 2022.
Team Ireland will be taking on teams from Scotland, England, Wales, Spain and Turkey across 11 track and fields to gather points to decide their position going into the decider event “The Hunt”.
DNA integrates modified rules, presentational possibilities and digital communications elements that can be adapted for every level of the competition pyramid while remaining true to the essence of athletics. Key features include:
- Mixed gender teams.
- A compact programme of interchangeable disciplines .
- Head-to-head competition in the field events with every attempt counting towards the team match score.
- Team match results remain open and unpredictable until the final competition discipline.
At the 2021 Irish Life Health Indoor Micro Meet James took first place for the shot-put event and a new personal best of 16.72 before heading outdoors for the rest of the 2021 competition calendar, where he also brought home lots of gold from events such as the North Down AC Javelin and Shot-Put Meet in Bangor and the National Athletics League Championships in Manchester.