OLYMPIAN Andy Butchart is the star name in the GB team which was yesterday named for the European Cross-Country Championships. The event will take place in Lisbon on the 8th of December and Butchart spearheads a 40-strong British team, which includes a further four Scots.
Butchart, of Central AC is no stranger to this event having won bronze at the 2017 European Cross-Country Championships, and the 28-year-old has been in excellent form so far this winter.
Following his elimination in the heats of the 5000m at the World Championships in Doha, Butchart had minimal time off before winning the Scottish Short-Course Cross-Country Championships in Kirkcaldy earlier this month. And as the Tokyo Olympics approaches, he is using the cross-country season to aid his winter training.
Sol Sweeney of Glasgow University, who is a training partner of Laura Muir, has been selected for the men’s under-23 team, with this being his first time racing at this event while Megan Keith of Inverness Harriers and Cera Gemmell will race the women’s under-20 event. All three were selected after finishing in the top four at the British Cross Challenge event in Liverpool last weekend, which doubled-up as European Championships trials, and guaranteed them selection. Keith and Gemmell will both be making their GB debuts in Lisbon.
Also selected is Hamish Armitt of Giffnock North AC for the men’s under-20 race, who will also be making his GB debut at the event.
Joining Butchart in the senior team are trials winners Ben Connor and Jess Judd, as well as Patrick Dever, Adam Hicke, Tom Evans, Kristian Jones, Charlotte Arter, Kate Avery, Abbie Donnelly, Amy Griffiths and Jenny Nesbitt.
Team leader Rob Denmark said: “Off the back of yet another extremely competitive trial event in Liverpool, we are able to name an incredibly strong team to travel to Lisbon for the European Cross Country Championships.
“The team contains a good level of experience across all age groups at these championships and on the international stage, which will hopefully set us up to contend for individual and team medals once again.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here