Gemma Steel at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships (© Getty Images)
European cross-country champion Gemma Steel will lead the British team going to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang on Saturday 28 March.
Steel, who is actually the only athlete in the team over the age of 23, was an impressive winner of the continental title in the Bulgarian mountain resort of Samokov in December, and will head to China looking to improve on her 31st-place finish at the previous edition of the event in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz two years ago.
Joining Steel on the start line of the senior women’s race in Guiyang will be Rhona Auckland, who will compete in a British vest for the first time since winning European under-23 cross-country title three months ago.
After claiming the junior women’s team bronze medals two years ago in Bydgoszcz, Phoebe Law, Bronwen Owen, Hannah Nuttall, Grace Baker, Harriet Knowles-Jones and Amy Griffiths will be looking to replicate the achievements of their predecessors in just under two weeks’ time.
The Scottish, Welsh and English cross-country champions will all be present in the senior men’s team, with Charlie Hulson, Dewi Griffiths and Andrew Butchart respectively on the plane to Guiyang.
British Athletics for the IAAF
British team for Guiyang 2015:
Senior men: Andrew Butchart, Dewi Griffiths, Jonny Hay, Charlie Hulson
Senior women: Rhona Auckland, Gemma Steel
Junior men: Elliot Bowker, Alex George, Jonathan Glen, Jac Hopkins, Chris Olley, Joe Steward
Junior women: Grace Baker, Amy Griffiths, Harriet Knowles-Jones, Phoebe Law, Hannah Nuttall, Bronwen Owen
