06 July 2009

Stephanie Twell has withdrawn from the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team for this month’s European U23 Championships in Kaunus, Lithuania to focus her preparations on this summer’s major priority; August’s IAAF World Championships in Berlin. Twell, the World junior 1500m champion, was selected for the 5000m in Kaunus.

However, owing to a schedule which would have meant flying to Lithuania two days after this weekend’s Aviva UK Championships & World Trials in Birmingham and not returning until the following Monday, she has elected to concentrate on training for the week.

“It is always an honour and a privilege for Steph to represent her country, but there are more important targets this summer.” Said Twell’s coach Mick Woods. “Having looked at her training schedule we have reconsidered. The European 23s would have been a huge interruption to training and so we have decided to give this one a miss and focus our energies on Berlin.”

Team Leader John Trower said: “It’s disappointing that Stephanie will miss these championships, but we respect the decision of the athlete and coach. We wish them well for the remainder of the season and in particular with her World Championship ambitions.”