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Zara Tyas aims to be the next in the long line of great British heptathletes

Zara Tyas at the Team England Futures camp in Birmingham

Great Britain has a rich heptathlon history and Holmfirth’s Zara Tyas is planning to be the next superstar after dipping her toe in the water at the Commonwealth Games, writes Tum Balogun.

The 19-year-old hopeful, who recently took up heptathlon after initially competing in the high jump, was one of over 800 young athletes and aspiring support staff who invited to last week’s Games as part of the Team England Futures programme.

That included a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with Princess Charlotte, as the University of Birmingham’s Peter Scott House, with the Duchess, the patron of SportsAid, getting involved in a series of interactive workshops.

Tyas combines her athletics with studying for a combined degree in Maths and Sports Science at Loughborough University, and trains on the same track as some of the country’s elite performers.

She has ambitions of continuing the nation’s heptathlon hegemony, which continued with Team England’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson retaining her Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham.

“Next year for me, I’m aiming for the European Under-23 Championships, which are in Jerusalem” Tyas said.

“I’ve got a solid winter block of training and then we’ll go into that hopefully next season.

“This experience has definitely been different because when we’ve been training or competing, we haven’t been used to cameras following us all the time.

“It has been weird to get used to going about your day-to-day business and there’s a camera next to you, but you do get used to it.

“I’d only been there for two days and I felt like I was getting used to it, so it’s been good to get that experience.”

Team England Futures seeks to better prepare athletes to deliver medal-winning performances as either Team England, Team GB or ParalympicsGB debutants at future Games, while also giving support staff a first-hand look at the opportunities they could be presented with, as well as challenges they may face, at a multi-sport competition.

It allowed those involved to get their first experience of attending a multi-sport event ahead of them potentially representing their country at a major Games later in their career.

As well as having a tour around the athletes’ village and witnessing a variety of sports in Birmingham, they were also given a behind-the-scenes look at some of the other facilities made available to competitors.

Tyas said: “It’s been really good because in training and competing I’m just surrounded by athletes all the time – I don’t really branch out that often and watch other sports.

“Being in Team England Futures, where it’s a multi-sport environment, you just get to chat to everyone and learn more about the different sports.

“I really enjoyed the immersion camp, especially just seeing the work that goes behind the scenes because I didn’t realise how big an organisation it actually was.

“You get to meet everyone who’s involved and you get to meet some pretty amazing people.”

Commonwealth Games England has appointed SportsAid to lead on the development, management and operational delivery of Team England Futures at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. You can find out more about the programme by visiting https://www.sportsaid.org.uk/partnerships/team-england-futures/.