European under-20 champion makes dramatic decision to travel to Belgrade for global champs on March 30 as she joins Abbie Donnelly, Jess Warner-Judd and Will Barnicoat in GB team
When Innes FitzGerald won the under-20 women’s race at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships and World Trials in Nottingham last Saturday, she had little intention of racing at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30.
But after weighing up the travel options she has now decided make the long journey, probably via a number of trains, from her home in Devon in south-west England to the Balkans of south-east Europe.
“In the lead-up to the Inter-Counties, Innes did not think she would be doing the World Cross,” her coach Gavin Pavey told AW. “But she’s since decided the travel is do-able.”
It means the 17-year-old distance runner will take on the might of east Africa after winning the European title in style in Brussels in December. She finished fourth in the Euro Cross in Turin 15 months ago but that was after a gruelling journey to Italy on the Eurostar and trains where she had little sleep.
FitzGerald’s eco-friendly stance on travel is well-publicised and she turned down a GB vest for the World Cross Country Championships in Australia last year because she could not justify to herself doing a long-haul flight.
Innes FitzGerald (Getty)
Pavey says she did not particularly ease down for last weekend’s Inter-Counties either and plans to do the same at the English Schools Championships in Pontefract this Saturday (March 16) – effectively using the race as a hard training run – before tapering for the World Cross.
The winner of the under-20 men’s trial in Nottingham, though, Aron Gebremariam, is not in the GB team as he is an Eritrean refugee currently running for Birchfield and isn’t eligible to run for Britain.
The GB team does, however, have a number of strong names in a squad which was originally due to be named on Wednesday but delayed until Thursday morning.
Abbie Donnelly (James Rhodes)
Abbie Donnelly, the European bronze medallist in December, leads the women’s team after winning not one but two trial races – the London International in January and Inter-Counties this month.
More of a surprise is the inclusion of Jess Warner-Judd in the team with her. Warner-Judd is due to race on the track in “The Ten” in California on Saturday where she will go for the Olympic 10,000m qualifying time. But she will then travel back to Europe for the World Cross.
Lauren McNeil, Alice Goodall and Niamh Brown complete the women’s team.
Will Barnicoat beats Valentin Bresc (Getty)
Calum Johnson, the Inter-Counties winner, leads the men’s team and is joined by European under-23 champion Will Barnicoat, plus ultra running specialist Tom Evans, James Kingston and Scott Stirling.
Fans of British cross-country running will be pleased that UK Athletics has selected a sizeable squad as opposed to sending a minimal number of senior athletes to Serbia or, as some nations prefer, sending no one at all.
FitzGerald will be hoping to mix it with the world’s best in Serbia but her junior team-mates will also be looking for good placings as she is joined by a talented squad of under-20 women.
They include Jess Bailey, Eliza Nicholson and Natasha Phillips.
U20 podium (l to r) Louise Damen, Eliza Nicholson, Innes FitzGerald, Jess Bailey, Liz Yelling (James Rhodes)
The under-20 men’s team, meanwhile, sees James Dargan, who was forced to miss the Euro Cross trials in December due to illness, joined by Henry Dover, Quinn Miell-Ingram and Craig Shennan.
Adam Fogg, who endured an unlucky GB debut in Glasgow this month after falling in his 1500m heat before finishing an exhausted last in the final – is part of a mixed relay team along with Thomas Keen, Alex Millard and Beth Morley.
The team management is led by Chris Jones and includes former endurance runners such as Eamonn Martin, James Thie, Chris and Sonia McGeorge.
James Dargan (Mark Hookway)
There are a few expected absentees, though. One of these is Hugo Milner, who won the Euro Cross senior men’s trial in Liverpool convincingly in November before going on to place fourth in the Euro Cross itself. He then won the London International in January but has since been training and racing in his No.1 sport of triathlon in Australia and New Zealand.
READ MORE: Inter-Counties coverage
The competition in Belgrade will be fierce with east African runners expected to dominate as usual, whereas early entries include Sifan Hassan, the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion from the Netherlands.
The senior titles at last year’s event in Bathurst, Australia, were won by Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda and Beatrice Chebet of Kenya.
The World Cross was originally due to be held in Croatia in mid-February but at the end of last year both the venue and date were switched to Belgrade on March 30 instead.
This led to British Athletics being forced to rearrange their selection strategy for the event. So instead of the new London International event at Parliament Hill acting as a standalone trial, the governing body decided to pick the squad for Serbia using three key events – the European Championships in Brussels, the London International and the Inter-Counties, with various elements of automatic selection available at each meeting.
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