OLYMPIAN Jared Deacon misses today's Northern Senior Track and Field Championships at Jarrow for England international duty in Latvia and Estonia.

And the 26-year-old triple North-East champion will be making his international debut in his newly-adopted event, the 400m hurdles.

Deacon, who competes in the British Athletics League Division One with Border Harriers, was delighted to win the hurdles event in the regional championships at Gateshead International Stadium last month, when he was only five hundreths of a second away from the record.

In the past Deacon has confined his running to the 200m and 400m flat races, also competing in the one-lap relay.

Now he believes that the hurdles could open an exciting new door for him in international athletics, and the British selectors will be watching his performances closely this weekend.

Deacon will run the flat 400m in Latvia today and will compete in his first hurdles event against international opposition in Estonia on Monday.

Before his call-up by England, Deacon had intended going for another three titles in the Northern Championships. Now the main senior men's medal hopes rest with another Border Harrier, Paul Reed, who defends his shot title, while Tynedale's Andrew Caine and former clubmate Nick McCormick, now with BAL club Woodford Green, should be the main contenders for the 1500m championship.

Teessider Allison Curbishley, who was forced to drop her interest in the hurdles because of a persistent knee injury, will make her first appearance of the season in the 800m.

Curbishley, who won four English Schools Championships while a member of Middlesbrough and Cleveland Harriers, was being groomed as Great Britain's successor to former Olympic Champion Sally Gunnell until her injury problems.

The 25-year-old Scottish international, coached by former triple world champion Steve Cram, will use today's competition at Cram's old stamping ground at Monkton Stadium as a build up to next weekend's Scottish Championships, where she will be trying to win Commonwealth Games selection in the two lap event.

Today's field events start at 10.30am, with the track competitions getting underway at midday.

Loftus AC's Catherine Hare, a 20-year-old sports science undergraduate at Loughborough University, has been selected for the Great Britain Triathlon team to compete in the World Student Games in Japan in August.