UKA announce British team for the European Indoor Championships in Paris

UKA have just announced the British team to compete at the European Indoor Championships in Paris early next month, with maybe a few surprises coming up in its composition.
Marilyn Okoro comes in the women's 800m and even more surprisingly Conrad Williams has been included in the men's 4x400m relay, while Tiffani Offili will represent Britain for the first ever time in the 60m hurdles.
Sprint prodigy Jodie Williams will be making her eagerly anticipated debut at a senior international championships to the delight of many but Jeanette Kwakye is, rather surprisingly left out - some late injury cropped up maybe?
On the other hand, thankfully, Harry Aikines-Aryeety hamstring injury during the 60m final at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham hasn't ruled him out.

The team have as follows:

Men
60m Harry Aikines Aryeetey, Dwain Chambers, Joel Fearon
400m Richard Buck, Nigel Levine, Richard Strachan
800m Andrew Osagie, Joe Thomas
1500m Nick McCormick, Colin McCourt
3000m Andy Baddeley, Mo Farah
60mh Lawrence Clarke
HJ Robbie Grabarz, Tom Parsons
4x400m Richard Buck, Nick Leavey, Luke Lennon- Ford, Nigel Levine, Richard Strachan, Conrad Williams

Women
60m Jodie Williams, Bernice Wilson
800m Jenny Meadows, Marilyn Okoro
1500m Stacey Smith, Hannah England
3000m Helen Clitheroe
60mh Tiffany Ofili
PV Holly Bleasdale
Pentathlon Jessica Ennis
4x400m Kelly Massey, Jenny Meadows, Lee McConnell, Marilyn Okoro, Kelly Sotherton, Laura Wake

Surely they could have slipped a long jumper into this squad?

flashcoach wrote:Surely they could have slipped a long jumper into this squad?

Both Greg Rutherford and Chris Tomlinson have skipped the indoor season so the next available choice would be JJ Jegede with an indoor PB of 7.79m this season, which lies way off the required standards.

Whilst I don't like the idea of taking 'passengers' to these kind of events, If I was a selector I would have been tempted to take one or two up and coming athletes - say Jegede and Coutts - for the experience.

Charles van Commennee feels that Jessica's niggling ankle injury in the run-up to Paris can be a blessing in disguise:

http://sport.scotsman.com/sport/Jessica-Ennis-injuries-can-be.6722848.jp

Although of arguably medium size, I reckon that this is a very competitive squad across the board and I can hardly think of a single athlete that hasn't got a chance of at least making a final in Paris.

There are some five-six very strong gold medal chances there, along with a healthy number of other podium contenders, so I feel that the odds look good for a haul of six to eight medals with three golds therein, particularly if Jessica Ennis is totally over her niggling ankle injury.

Jessica herself, Dwain Chambers, Mo Farah, Jenny Meadows, Helen Clitheroe and the men's 4x400m relay look like genuine gold medal contenders while the likes of Nigel Levine, Andy Baddeley, Tom Parsons, Hannah England hold definitely some good chances of making the podium.

I fancy a surprise medal or two from the younger members of the squad with Andie Osagie springing up first off the top of my head, while I'm intrigued to see how Jodie Williams and Holly Bleasdale are going to fare.

Harry Aikines-Ayreety is going to be a question mark and it depends on how early he is back to full training whether he's going to be a medal hopeful himself.