CITY of Plymouth’s Poppy Tank has secured an automatic spot in Great Britain’s team for next month’s European Cross Country Championships with a third place finish at the UK Cross Challenge in Liverpool on Saturday.
Tank, who has competed at four previous European Cross Country Championships, set the pace in the mud and rain at Sefton Park.
She led the senior women’s trial race for the opening two laps before Belgrave’s Kate Axford overtook her on the final circuit.
Tank then became embroiled in a contest with Cardiff’s Cari Hughes and Lincoln Wellington’s Abbie Donnelly on the last lap, all knowing the top four would automatically book the European slots.
The trio worked together with Hughes just pipping Tank by one second for runners-up spot and Donnelly – a bronze medallist at last year’s Europeans – seven seconds behind the Plymouth athlete in fourth.
The European Cross Country Championships will take place in Antalya, Turkey, on December 8.
Last year, Tank finished 11th in the senior race in Belgium and helped Great Britain win the team gold medal (pictured above).
Tavistock Run Project’s Oliver Smart just missed out on automatic selection in the men’s under-23 race in Liverpool on Saturday.
In a competitive race, Smart finished seventh overall – one place above his former Devon Schools’ colleague Flynn Jennings.
There are six places available in the Great Britain U23 team, with the top four selected from Saturday’s race and the remaining two slots chosen at a selection meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, City of Plymouth’s UK number one junior discus thrower Nubia Evans-Shields is to follow Tank’s example and swap Plymouth College for an athletics scholarship in Utah in America.
Evans-Shields has accepted a place for autumn 2025 at Utah State University that specialise in throwing events.
Evans-Shields has topped the UK U20 ranking this year by more than two metres in her first season at the higher age group. She had previously topped the under-17, under-15 and under-13 UK rankings and has won three English Schools’ titles.
She recently visited the university to look at their facilities and lifestyle.
Fellow City of Plymouth athlete Tank had gone to the University of Utah, where her middle distance career really took off.