ISLE of Wight athlete, Henry McLuckie, has been selected to compete in the European U23 Track and Field Championships, representing Team Great Britain.

The news comes after he secured two British athletics standards over 5,000m (13:36) and 10,000m (28:57).

It means McLuckie will be heading to the city of Espoo in Finland, 20 kilometres west of Helsinki.

The U23 Championships are a steppingstone for young athletes competing at an elite level and progressing from juniors to a seniors.

The event is biannual, and thus it was the only opportunity McLuckie had to make the GB team.

British Athletics decided not to take a full team, so selection was made even more difficult this time around.

Recovering from Covid, McLuckie had to prove his fitness, which he did over 3,000m in Bracknell, finishing in eight minutes and five seconds.

Great Britain has a strong trio of athletes in the 5,000m category, and McLuckie will be joined by Charlie Hicks, who is based at Stanford University in California and has won the National Collegiate Championships, and Will Barnicoat from Aldershot who is the reigning Junior European Cross Country champion.

Running coach, Geoff Watkin, said: “This has been a tough GB team for Henry to make, but trips to altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, and South Africa, plus a lot of hard work, have paid dividends as he continues to make progress in becoming an elite distance runner.

“It will be a very tough race against the top Europeans, but these levels of competition are an important part of the learning process.”