GB name team for World Para Athletics European Championships
Almost a year on from a successful World Para Athletics Championships on home soil, 15 medallists from London have been selected to compete in Germany including seven who won gold. World and Paralympic champions Hannah Cockroft and Richard Whitehead are in the 52-strong squad for the event in Berlin.
Hollie Arnold, Olivia Breen, Hannah Cockroft, Aled Davies, Sophie Hahn, Stef Reid and Richard Whitehead all return to the British team for the continental showpiece as world champions.
Arnold, Breen and Hahn are also three of five athletes named to have reached the podium at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast back in April, taking gold in the F46 javelin, T38 long jump and T38 100m respectively. The British trio are also among 18 of the 52 athletes selected to have won medals at the last European Championships in Italy in 2016. The medal haul of 56 at the last edition was a record for the British team at the event.
After a season that has so far seen him set a world record - since beaten - in the T54 800m, and also set personal bests over all distances from 100m up to 800m, Richard Chiassaro will be hoping for further European success after winning four medals at the previous edition of these championships.
In addition to the experienced members of the team, 17 athletes have been handed their major senior international debuts for Britain. Chief among them is 16-year-old Eve Walsh Dann, who claimed world junior gold in the T35-38 100m and 200m last summer. Luke Nuttall also makes the step up from that team having won silver in the T46 1500m in Nottwil.
Four race runners are selected to represent Britain for the first time ever at the European Championships while Sally Brown earns her first British vest since the London 2012 Paralympic Games six years ago.
Paula Dunn, head coach at British Athletics, said:
"I am delighted to announce the 52 athletes selected to compete for Great Britain & Northern Ireland at the World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin in August. We have a great tradition of winning medals at a continental level and I am looking forward to watching how our experienced athletes and those making their debuts perform.
"After a three-year period involving two World Championships, a Europeans and a Paralympic Games, it was always the intention for a handful of athletes to rest and recuperate in 2018. We have a great mixture of athletes going to Berlin who have reached the very top of the sport and those beginning their journey and I’ve no doubt they will learn a lot from each other in Berlin."
Full squad list is available on British Athletics website.
