England Team selected for U20 European Road Race in Italy
The following athletes have been selected to represent England at the ‘Trofeo Opitergium’ U20 European Road Championships which takes place in the City of Oderzo on 1st May. Competing under IAAF competition rules the U20 Men will race over 10k and the women over 5k. Last year’s winner of the women’s race was Italy’s Nadia Battocletti who went on to win the U20 European Cross title later in the year.
Becky Briggs (City of Hull, Derek Ricketts) who after a successful winter on the country in which she won the Lotto Cross Cup meeting in Rotselaar, Belgium went on to represent Great Britain at the IAAF World acquitting herself well in Denmark finishing 44th and third scorer for the GB team who placed 6th overall. Briggs has already set an impressive mark of 34:09 over 10k for an 18 year old and is excited to see what she can do over 5k on the roads in a competitive race.
Also looking forward to testing themselves at 5k on the road are Jessica Mitchell (Havering, Patrick Gahagan) who finished 2nd U20 at the English National Cross-Country Championships in Leeds, Holly Smith (Vale Royal, Andrew Carter) with a best of 17:02 at 5k and Birmingham University student Lucy Elms (Dulwich) with a best of 18:04.
The U20 Men’s team is headed up by Jem O’Flaherty (London Heathside, Kabir Kemp) who was part of the 2018 team that competed in Oderzo and with a superb cross-country season behind him will return to Oderzo with the aim of building on last year’s performance. He will be supported by Max Davis (Avon Valley Runners, Steve Williams), Chris McLeod (Solihull & Small Heath, Andrew Webber), Ben Preddy (Preston, Peter Crook) and Sam Goodchild (Cornwall AC, Diarmuid Devery), all of whom make their England debuts.