TWO south Essex schools will be among those battling it out to be crowned world champions.

FitzWimarc School in Rayleigh and Southend High School for Girls have been selected to travel to Karlovy, in the Czech Republic, for the World Schools Athletics Championships.

Each team will select a squad of six to travel to the championships, which will take place in June.

The schools won the right to represent England at the championships after their intermediate boys and girls teams won the English Track & Field Cup.

Those squads were made up of eight athletes which will leave PE staff at both schools with tough decisions over the coming months as they whittle that number down to six.

Southend High School for Girls last went to the championships when they were held in Talinn in 2009, when they finished third.