Megan Keith will be in contention for her second individual title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and her second major U23 gold medal of the year in Brussels on 10 December.
After winning the European U20 cross country title in 2021, Keith graduated into the U23 ranks last year and claimed silver behind Italy’s Nadia Battocletti who makes her debut in the senior race next month.
But based on recent form, Keith starts as the outstanding favourite to add the European U23 cross country title to her 5000m gold from the European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo this July.
Keith defeated a strong international field at the Cardiff Cross Challenge and dominated the trial race in Liverpool, winning the senior race with a near gun-to-tape display by a whopping 53 seconds.
Despite the absence of two-time champion Charles Hicks in the men's U23 race, the individual title could still very possibly remain in British hands.
The team features European U23 10,000m champion Rory Leonard, last year’s European U20 cross country champion Will Barnicoat and 1500m specialist Matt Stonier who recently finished second in the trials in Liverpool, just ahead of Leonard in fourth.
The men’s and women’s senior teams will be headed by trials winner Hugo Milner and Abbie Donnelly, who finished a distant second to Keith in Liverpool. Donnelly will be joined on the team by world 10,000m eighth-placer Jessica Warner-Judd, a six-time team gold medallist at the European Cross Country Championships.
After finishing fourth in the U20 race last year when she was one of the youngest athletes in the race, 17-year-old Innes Fitzgerald will be one of the favourites for the U20 title in Brussels. She won the trials race in Liverpool by a commanding margin of 30 seconds.
Great Britain is by far the most successful nation in European Cross Country Championships history with 75 gold medals and 177 medals won in total.
Notable successes have included former world marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe winning individual senior gold in 1998 and 2003 and Mo Farah winning his first major senior title in 2006.
The full British team can be found here.
