The countdown is on to the World Championships in Tokyo and this week in Athletics we’ve had squad announcements and statements made in the Diamond League final.
GB Squad announced for Tokyo
Great Britain and Northern Ireland have officially announced their squad for this month’s World Championships.
Following confirmation of 12 GB athletes achieving the required World Ranking positions a team of 64 athletes will now travel to Tokyo.
The two omissions from the previously announced squad are the nations sole representatives in the 100m Hurdles Marcia Sey and 3000m SteepleChase champion Zak Seddon.
The squad announced has been selected through the brief of top eight placings in individual events with the relay teams being set the goal of medalling,
The biggest headlines from the announcement include Georgia Hunter Bell’s confirmed switch to the 800m. The 1500m Olympic bronze medalist took the 800m national title as well as being pipped to the Diamond League title last week by Audrey Werro.
Hunter Bell will join her training partner and Olympic Champion Keely Hodgkinson over two laps who made a return from a hamstring tear last month achieving two wins and meeting records at the Diamond League meets in Silesia, Poland and Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hunter Bell spoke about the opportunity to do compete in both earlier in the season before just selecting the 800m;
“We (Hunter Bell & Hodgkinson) do a lot of training together, we obviously are very good friends and we have a great team vibe, so I think at the moment we’re just taking it day-by-day.
“It will be interesting, if we both make the world final and we both have a chance of doing well, how we manage [the situation].
“But, at the end of the day, if Great Britain could win two medals out of three, and [our training group] M11 could go one-two, that would just be the coolest thing ever.
“We’re all excited about the opportunity, rather than seeing it as anything negative.”
Both World Champions from Budapest will be back to defend their titles as Josh Kerr takes to the track in the 1500m against his great rival Jakob Ingerbrigtsen who confirmed last week that despite injury doubts he will be competing in Tokyo.
Katarina Johnson Thompson also returns in the heptathlon heading to her 7th World Championships.
That same number is matched by Dina Asher-Smith. The 2019 200m World Champion Broke the British Championship record last month after returning to London…
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