Shropshire's Zoe Gilbody to make history at World Cross Country Championships

The Thomas Telford School Year 11 student has been selected to run in a four-person Great Britain team at the World Cross Country Championships.

She will line up in the under-20 women’s race in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, alongside Rebecca Flaherty, Megan Harris and Hannah Ryding.

Gilbody has previously represented England Schools in Home Countries Internationals, finishing third and first in her two appearances.

She would have had a hat-trick of England Schools appearances, but after winning the England Schools Junior Girls title at Sefton Park, Liverpool, the international the following week became one of the first events to be cancelled due to Covid.

But it was during that year she really broke on to the national scene as she managed a rare treble – winning the England National Under-13 Cross Country title, the British Inter Counties Under-13 title and the English Schools title as a first year in her age group.

Honour

The only athletes from Shropshire who have had the honour of running for Britain in the World Cross Country Championships are all men – Chris Davies, from Eaton Constantine, ran in the same team as Mo Farah in Japan in 2006 and Oliver Laws, from Much Wenlock, ran in the under-20s race when it was held in Belfast in 1999.

Ex-Shropshire Schools athlete, and now director of sport at Thomas Telford School, Phil Nicholls ran for Britain in the same World Championships on three occasions – in Kenya in 2007, Jordan in 2009 and Poland in 2013.

And another ex-Shropshire Schools athlete and Adams Newport student, Tom Humphries, who lived just over the border in Gnosall, also ran in the World Championships in Edinburgh in 2008 and Spain in 2011.