CHORLEY athlete Katie Ingram has won the senior women’s Great Britain and Northern Ireland trial for the 25th World Mountain Running Championships and will take her place at Campodolciono in Italy on September 6.

The 24-year old Horwich RMI Harrier ran ‘a superb race’ in Keswick according to her coach Norman Matthews.

“Katie’s tactic was to sit in on the first lap, shadowing Kate Good-head, who narrowly beat her in the European Championships, but pulled clear on the second lap as they climbed the steep banking to Latrigg summit,” he said.

Ingram went on to win by more than a minute.

Ingram was in the England team which narrowly missed a medal in last year’s race but this year a combined British team will replace the individual home countries, making selection much harder.

There is also a new competition with the Commonwealth Games for mountain runners and ultra distance athletes taking place in Keswick from September 17-20, when the home countries will each send teams.

They all used the world championship trials as a basis for choosing their teams for the Commonwealth race, which earns Ingram her selection, while she has also successfully applied for a place in the uphill only race at the Games.

Sarah Tunstall will also feature in both the world championships and Commonwealth Games teams even though she missed the trial.

The Clitheroe athlete won bronze at last year’s European Cham-pionships and silver in the under 23 race in the 2008 European cross country championships and she will run in the up-and-down race at the Commonwealths as well as at the Worlds which are also up-and-down this year.

The surprise package was Gary Priestley, who was 14th among the senior men in only his second fell race.

The Horwich Harrier from Chorley gains his first international vest running for the U23 development team in Slovenia at the Smarna Gora mountain race, which takes place on October 3.

Sadly, British U23 champion James Kevan has not made it after retiring with severe stomach cramps, while Peter Matthews of Blackburn Harriers was another forced to drop out.

Tom Cornthwaite of Blackburn Harriers and British champion Rob Hope from Wheelton have also been omitted after finishing in 11th and 12th positions.

Candice Taylor of Clayton-le-Moors, who was 10th in the ladies race, has also been overlooked despite making her debut in last year’s European team.