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Athletics

Gardener and Lewis-Francis lose out as Pickering gets Euro nod

12/06/2007

Craig Pickering has been selected to represent the Great Britain and Northern Ireland side in the European Cup 100m.

The Milton Keynes sprinter has been in inspired form this season, leaving his British rivals in his wake as he proved victorious in a number of key races.

The most recent win came in the Glasgow grand prix, when the 20-year-old eased home in a personal best time of 10.22 seconds.

In that race he beat Mark Lewis-Francis, who has posted the fastest time by a Briton this year, into second place while the UK's other big hope Jason Gardener was disqualified.

Pickering also claimed silver in the European Indoor Championships, trailing in behind four-time 60m champion Gardener.

Britain's men are in the top flight of European competition while the women are hoping to retain that status after relegation last year.

"Even this early in the season some good performances made for some very difficult selection decisions," Dave Collins, UK Athletics performance director, said of the choices made for the tournament.

"However, we are confident we have selected the best team for what is always a challenging pair of fixtures."

Gardener and Lewis-Francis join Pickering in the 4x100m line-up, along with Marlon Devonish, Tyrone Edgar and Christian Malcolm for the competition in Munich on June 23rd and 24th.

Triple jumper Phillips Idowu is another gold medallist from the indoor championships in March to be named, while Nicola Sanders, who won the 400m in Birmingham, is in the women's side for the First League competition in Vaasa, Finland.

Devonish runs in the men's 200m; Tim Benjamin in the 400m; Michael Rimmer in the 800m; Andy Turner in the 110m hurdles; and David Greene in the 400m hurdles.

On the field, Germaine Mason competes in the high jump; Steve Lewis in the pole vault; Chris Tomlinson in the long jump; Carl Myerscough in the shot putt; and Nick Nieland in the javelin.

Among the women, Joice Maduaka competes in both the 100m and 200m; Jo Pavey is in the 5,000m; Natasha Danvers-Smith competes in the 400m hurdles; and Jade Johnson is in the long jump.

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