CITY of Plymouth athlete Poppy Tank will earn more senior international honours in the new year.
Tank has been named in England’s team to complete at the Maguerza International Cross Country in the Spanish town of Elgoibar on January 8.
It follows a successful senior Great Britain debut last weekend where Tank finished 13th at the European Cross Country Championships in Turin, Italy, and helped her country to silver in the team event.
She had previously impressed at cross country for her country at under-23 level.
The Maguerza event attracts some of the best runners in the world and Tank will follow in the footsteps of Erme Valley Harriers’ Will Battershill in representing England at the senior level at the event.
The competition is named after Basque runner Juan Maguerza, a multiple national champion who was killed in 1937 during the Spanish civil war.
The event was first held in 1943 between national level runners but changed in 1963 to an international event.
One of the England team managers Eamonn Martin said: “England have taken men’s and women’s senior and junior teams for many years now to Elgoibar and have always been very welcomed.
“The competition is really good and we have had many junior winners of recent years, but in the senior events it has been very difficult. However our men and women have benefited enormously from this level of competition – for many this is the toughest race they have competed in outside of the European or World Cross Country Championships.”
Tank will be joined in the England squad by Exeter’s Sam Mills, who will compete in under-20 men’s race.