Ellen for the Euros

Thanks to Jerry Watson of Thames Hare & Hounds for the photograph above

Ellen Weir is 'super-excited' to be heading to Dublin on 12 December, after forging her way through high winds in the aftermath of Storm Arwen at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday (27 November) to secure her place in the British U20 team at the European Cross Country Championships.

Having made the European Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she competed in the 5000m in the summer, the latest target for Ellen, who has just turned 18, was to finish in the top five automatic qualification spots.

Wisely in the conditions, Ellen bided her time over the 4.4K course. 'Everyone went out too quickly over the fast downhill start, with 40 mph winds', says dad Andy. 'Ellen was about twentieth after 800m, but she moved through to tenth after the short lap, then on the long lap she made a surge and got herself into the top five – she was briefly fourth before with 300m to go, but finishing back into the wind Phoebe Anderson (her room mate in Tallinn) snook past her'. 'I overtook her and another athlete, but Phoebe stuck with me and then out-sprinted me pretty much on the line, but at that stage we knew we had both qualified', says Ellen.

Above: Ellen in the melee (photo by Mark Hookway)

Also confirmed by the selectors on Monday is HW second claim athlete Stuart McCallum, who finished sixth in the senior men's race at Liverpool.

The fixture, which traditionally hosts the qualification races for the European Championships, is the third in the British Athletics Cross Challenge Series, and the experience of two events before Liverpool clearly helped Ellen. 'The U20s and U17s run together and the U17s always go out fast', she says, 'so I knew it was OK to be further back at the start.'  

All three U20 Cross Challenge races have been won by Megan Keith of Inverness Harriers AAC. In the first in Cardiff on October 16 Ellen finished second over the 4,450m course, clocking 14:54. A month later at Teardrop Lakes, Milton Keynes, on 13 November she was fourth over the 4.8K course in 17:42. At Liverpool, she finished the 4.4K in 15:14, with European mission accomplished.

'I'm really looking forward to Dublin’ says Ellen, ‘as I will be linking up with three of the girls I was with in the team for Tallinn' (Megan Keith, Phoebe Anderson of Herne Hill Harriers, and Alice Garner of Aldershot, Farnham & District).

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