AMELIA Pettitt will run for Great Britain at next month’s World University Cross Country Championships.

The Vale Royal Athletics Club member finished fourth in the women’s race at last weekend’s British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships in Gloucester.

And selectors for the British team rewarded the 20-year-old, a student at Newcastle University, for her showing when they named a six-strong line-up on Wednesday afternoon.

It completes a remarkable month for Pettitt, who was a late call-up to an England senior women’s team that took on their Welsh counterparts during last month’s British Cross Challenge series meeting in Cardiff.

She classified sixth, second-counter behind Elle Vernon.

The former Sandbach High School student was 10th in the same category at the Northern Cross Country Championships in Blackburn seven days later.

She completed a hat-trick of high-profile runs at Plock Court on Saturday, when she was pipped to a bronze medal by Jenny Nesbitt (University of Bath).

“It was a brilliant run,” said Andy Carter, Pettit’s coach at Vale Royal.

“Her aim beforehand was to finish inside the top 10.”

The World University Cross Country Championships take place in Cassino, a town around 75km from Italian capital Rome, on Saturday, March 12.

 

Great Britain team

Men

Maximilian Nicholls (King's College London)
Andrew Heyes (Birmingham)
Jonathan Davies (Birmingham)
Jacob Allen (St. Mary's)
Alexander Brecker (Warwick)
Jack Rowe (St Mary’s)

Women
Amelia Pettitt (Newcastle)
Jennifer Nesbitt (Bath)
Philippa Woolven (Birmingham)
Rebecca Murray (Birmingham)
Damaris Smith (Birmingham)
Beth Hawling (Cardiff)