Great Britain has announced their team for the European Athletics Team Championships Super League which takes place in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 9-11 August.
The British team has a perennial presence inside the top five of the overall standings since the first edition of the European Athletics Team Championships in Leiria, Portugal in 2009. The Brits were fourth in Lille Metropole two years ago with six victories across the three days and had their best ever showing in 2010 when they finished second in Bergen, Norway.
The Brits will be particularly strong in the middle distances with European indoor silver medallist Jamie Webb and European indoor champion Shelayna Oskan-Clarke taking on team duties in the 800m while Charlie Grice and Jessica Judd, who won the 800m at the European Team Championships at the age of 18 2013, will be contesting the 1500m.
Webb and Grice are in particular likely to face strong Polish opposition from European champions Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski, the latter who just missed his 800m PB with 1:43.74 in the London Diamond League.
Other familiar names in the British team include Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (100m) and Nick Miller (hammer) on the men’s side and Jodie Williams (200m), Meghan Beesley (400m hurdles), Morgan Lake (high jump) and Sophie Hitchon (hammer) on the women’s side.
The team also includes some newcomers to the senior team who excelled at the recent Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships including bronze medallist in the 110m hurdles Cameron Fillery. European U23 200m champion Shemar Boldizsar and European U23 100m silver medallist Oliver Bromby are part of the 4x100m team and Cameron Chalmers, who won individual and relay medals in Gavle, has been named in the 4x400m team.
The British team has also named a full-strength team in the women’s 4x400m relay featuring Laviai Nielsen who ran a European-leading 50.83 in the London Diamond League as well as Beth Dobbin and Jodie Williams who have clocked 22.50 and 22.75 respectively for the 200m in 2019. Williams has also clocked a 51.22 PB for 400m in 2019.
Asha Philip, Bianca Williams and Daryll Neita, all of whom were part of the gold medal-winning sprint relay team at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, have been named in the relay pool for the 4x100m relay.
With the change to the European Team Championships approved by the European Athletics Council last November, five teams will be relegated from the Super League in order to streamline the top tier of the competition to eight countries from 2021. Only one team will be promoted by the European Athletics Team Championships First League in Sandnes, Norway.
The full team can be found here.