European Cup call for Carnegie athletes

Students from Leeds Metropolitan are celebrating following the announcement of the GB squad for the forthcoming European Cup in Portugal.

2010 Commonwealth Champion and Leeds Met student Johanna Jackson will lead the Aviva Great Britain & Northern Ireland Team into the 9th European Cup, in Olhao, Portugal on 21 May, aiming to begin her 2011 season with a solid performance over 20k.

Jackson, who has spent the last two winters training in Australia at an international race walking camp - in addition to a period of training at the UKA/London Marathon Altitude Camp in Font Romeu prior to a tenth place finish at the 2010 European Championships - has enjoyed a steady rise to prominence, firstly dominating the UK walking rankings before setting her sights on the Commonwealth title.

She is joined by experienced walking twins Dominic and Daniel King who will compete over 50k and 20k respectively. Both competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Daniel beating his bother by one place with a fifth place finish, and have since enjoyed regular international race walking call ups.

Jackson's training partner and fellow Leeds Met student Tom Bosworth, who made his international debut at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi with a respectable 11th place finish, will contest the 20k event, while 17-year old Jamie Higgins in only his first full year as a race walker, makes his Aviva GB&NI debut.

Commenting on the announcement Carnegie Director of Race Walking, Dr Andrew Drake said: "When we started this programme in 2009 we set out our measurement of progress/success as athletes in teams, with the pinnacle being competitive athletes in an Olympic Games Team. This squad dominates the GB Team for the European Cup: we have Carnegie Scholars Tom Bosworth and Alex Wright plus Lauren Whelan from City College and Jamie Higgins from Leeds City AC who train with the squad making their débuts for Team GB; Johanna Jackson will be highly competitive at the front of the field; and Brendan Boyce is in the Irish Team. All have realistic goals of qualifying for major championships this summer, which will be a further marker for our programme."

The UK Athletics National Race Walking Centre is also currently hosting a USA athlete, Susan Randall, at the moment who is preparing for the 2012 Test Event on 30 March on the Mall in London and is working alongside Brian Hanley from the Carnegie Research Institute on biomechanical analysis. 

Aviva GB&NI Team

Men
50km: Dominic King
20km: Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake); Alex Wright; Daniel King
Junior 10km: Jamie Higgins (Andi Drake)

Women
20km: Johanna Jackson (Andi Drake)
Junior 10km: Heather Lewis (Martin Bell); Laura Whelan