GB team for the 2024 European Championships
Up to 2012, the European Athletics Championships took place every four years. Since then, it is every 2nd year. The 2024 event in Rome in June will be the third European Championship to be held in the Olympic year – after 2012 and 2016. The 2020 event was canceled because of COVID. The problem with running a European Championship in an Olympic year and in effect about 6-7 weeks before the Olympics is that a significant proportion of top athletes choose not to compete as they believe they can better prepare for the Olympics by training or competing in one-off races.
The GB team named this week—which is listed in full at the end of this article—consists of about 72 athletes. The exact number is uncertain because some selected athletes need to have their invitation confirmed by European Athletics.
As a general rule, sprinters are happy to compete in a championship close to the Olympics. Still, middle-distance runners believe that it is not helpful to them to run three rounds potentially in three days so close to their main event.
The 2024 GB team includes several of our potential Olympic medalists
Sprinters: Dina Asher-Smith, Daryll Neita, Zharnel Hughes
400m Matthew Hudson-Smith (withdrawn)
800m Keely Hodgkinson
Pole Vault Holly Bradshaw, Molly Caudery
Heptathlon: Katarina Johnson-Thompson
At the media briefing, Head Coach Paula Dunn was asked about the basis for the selection, remembering that the European Championships precede the Olympic selection trials. She said it was a combination of athletes asking to be considered and her approaching athletes as to their availability. With the Olympics clearly the priority it was stressed that there was no pressure on athletes or coaches to make themselves available for European selection.
Paula also admitted that she was pleasantly surprised at how many “top” athletes wanted to be in Rome: “I think if you had asked me in January or February, I would have probably said not that many of our big hitters would be interested in competing. So from our perspective, it’s great that we’ve got the likes of KJT or Matt Hudson-Smith there and some really up-and-coming athletes competing.”
Interestingly, our three best 10000m runners – Megan Keith, Eilish McColgan, Jessica Warner-Judd have opted to run in Rome, as have middle distance runners Neil Gourley and George Mills – although George will run 5k. It may be a case of thinking that a medal in the Europeans…
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