PAULA RADCLIFFE may still be intending to run her first track race for almost two years in the European Cup this weekend, but the Great Britain women’s middle distance squad has collapsed around her. UK Athletics (UKA) announced yesterday that Jo Fenn, Hayley Tullett and Jo Pavey had withdrawn, leaving only Radcliffe in place as the selectors’ original choice in what was the strongest area of the team.
When the squad was named a week ago, Max Jones, the UKA performance director, said that, with regard to the women, it was “our strongest ever team on the track”. Now the one-athlete-per-event tournament in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on Saturday and Sunday, is more likely to see Britain’s women battling to avoid relegation from the Super League than challenging for a top-three place.
Fenn, the World Indoor Championships bronze medal- winner over 800 metres last winter, has given up her place after a poor start to the season. Tullett, the outdoor World Championships bronze medal- winner over 1,500 metres in Paris last summer, is out too, with a thigh injury.
Pavey, who broke Liz McColgan’s British indoor record for 3,000 metres last winter, is also sidelined, having sustained a calf injury two weeks ago. Fenn’s place at 800 metres has gone to the in-form Susan Scott, Tullett’s at 1,500 metres to Helen Clitheroe, a European Cup-winner in 2000, and Pavey’s at 3,000 metres to the inexperienced Kate Reed. Radcliffe remains at 5,000 metres.
Some team places had been left open and, helping to complete the squad, are Kelly Sotherton, the heptathlete who has been picked for the long jump, and Mark Lewis-Francis in the men’s 100 metres.