KENT athlete Charlotte Dale has decided to run only the senior women's race and not in the junior event at the Reebok Margate International at Hartsdown Park on Sunday.

Dale, 18, from Whitstable, will still be eligible to claim a place in the junior women's event at the European Cross Country Championships in Croatia on December 8, where she has hopes of a medal.

But she has been advised that she needs harder races than she gets in her own age-group - she was fifth in last winter's junior race at the European championships.

She was considering running both the under-20 and senior races at Margate, as she did a fortnight ago at the Reebok Birmingham Challenge, when she finished a second in the senior women's 6km after winning the under-20 4km.

But UK Athletics Technical Director for Endurance Zara Hyde Peters announced after a discussion with the former Canterbury College student, a member of Invicta East Kent: "Charlotte is going to run the senior women's race and not the junior. It will be the best preparation for her in her last race before the Europeans.

"She will be ineligible for selection for the senior women's team. She does not want to run the senior women's race at the European championships.

"The first three eligible athletes over the line in Margate will still gain automatic selection in both the senior and junior women's races."

Allen Graffin, who lives in Tonbridge but now runs for Belgrave Harriers, is among the favourites in the senior men's event having finished second in last winter's English National Championships.

For further information about the event, visit www.ukathletics.net