December 9, 2021 6.00 am This story is over 26 months old

Lincoln 10K winner to represent GB in European Championships

National recognition for a local runner

By Local Democracy Reporter

A Lincoln-based runner who broke a female course record at this year’s City of Lincoln 10K has been selected for Great Britain in the European Cross Country Championships.

Abbie Donnelly, 25, who runs at Lincoln Wellington Athletics Club, won her local race this year at the Asda Foundation City of Lincoln 10K, setting an all time Run For All 10K female course record in the process.

She has now been selected to represent Great Britain in the upcoming European Cross Country Championships on December 12 in Dublin.

Abbie has represented her country on a number of occasions through her career, including in 2015, where she was an under 20s female in the World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China.

Abbie was selected in the GB team for the 2015 World Cross Country Championships in China.

It is set to be the second time that Abbie competes in the event, having also been selected in 2019, and she told The Lincolnite that she’s very much looking forward to it.

Abbie said: “I’m very excited to have been selected to represent Great Britain in the European Cross-Country Championships on the December 12. I previously competed in this event in 2019 which took place in Lisbon.

“I love to take part in the Lincoln 10k each year and currently hold the female record for this course, as well as being the 3rd time female champion for this event.”

Abbie was part of the Great Britain team that won gold in this event at Lisbon in 2019.

Abbie trains six days a week for her events, sometimes hitting around 65 miles a week, and has said that she dreams of making it to the Olympics for the next games in Paris in 2024.

She added: “On the track my events are 5,000 and 10,000 metres. A big aim of mine is to be selected for the Commonwealth team next year and hopefully in 2024, the Olympics. This would be a dream come true!”