Sarah Claxton admitted to a measure of relief mixed in with her delight at being included in the Great Britain team to compete at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Turin next month.

The Colchester-born Olympic finalist (pictured) will be representing her country once again in the 60 metre hurdles.

She has shown so far this season that she has the form to challenge for one of the medals in Italy, but was left sweating on her place in the team after a back injury kept her out of the AAA UK Indoor Championships and European trials in Sheffield two weeks ago.

Despite her coach, Lloyd Cowan, telling her it would not affect her chances of being selected, Claxton said she was a bit concerned, however, the 29-year-old was delighted to see her place confirmed.

“I was really pleased to see my name included as I was not too sure if they would,” she said. “I did not compete at the trials so there was a bit of relief as well.

“I thought I would have to have run the qualifying time of 8.05 seconds, but it was just a guideline time and they were flexible.”

She has run a time of 8.06 seconds this year to be ranked third in Europe and that was enough for the selectors to appreciate Claxton’s potential to challenge for a medal in Turin and she now has two weeks of intensive preparations ahead of the championships.

“My hopes for Turin are that I can make the final and we will see whatever happens from there,” added Claxton.

“All the top Europeans are about the same standard.

“A couple of the Russians have gone under eight seconds, but I feel I have that time in me.

“I now have two weeks of good training to make up the time I lost because of the injury.

“There isn’t much I need to do, but I just need to sharpen up.”