Reigning Olympic and World champion Greg Rutherford and London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz have today been announced in a 23-strong British Athletics team for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, USA on 17-20 March.
Chris Baker, currently ranked world number two, makes his global championship debut alongside Grabarz in the high jump, with World Championship silver medallist Shara Proctor and double World Indoor Championships medallist Tiffany Porter also included in the team. Porter, will be looking to complete the collection of World Indoor medals and add gold to her 2012 silver and 2014 bronze.
The team contains a number of newly crowned British Indoor Champions, following last weekend’s Championships in Sheffield. Included are 800m champion Adelle Tracey (Craig Winrow), who makes her senior team debut, as well as 1500m champion Charlie Grice and 3000m champion Steph Twell.
400m British champion Nigel Levine, 60m hurdles champion Andy Pozzi and 1500m champion Hannah England (Bud Baldaro) declined selection in favour of concentrating on the outdoor season.
Defending World Indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty also withdrew himself from selection for performance reasons, choosing instead to focus early on the outdoor season as an individual and member of the 4x100m relay team.
British Athletics has also accepted the IAAF’s invite for Morgan Lake to compete in the Pentathlon. At just 18-years-old Lake is the youngest member of the team and will be looking forward to returning to competition in the USA, where she won two World Junior titles in 2014.
Performance Director for British Athletics, Neil Black said: “This is a team that has been selected on the basis that every athlete can realistically make their final, but also with an eye on their individual development looking towards the Olympics this year and the London 2017 World Championships.
“There have been some excellent performances during the indoor season and we are confident that many of those selected will be challenging for medals.
“It is important to remember that British Athletics’ focus, as well as that of the individual athletes, is geared towards Rio in this Olympic year and the World Indoors is one of many stepping stones our athletes will look to use.”