Merrien marks GB debut with medal

Monday 15th December 2008, 2:29PM GMT.

LEE MERRIEN dug deep into his reserves of stamina to help Great Britain to a team bronze at yesterday’s European cross-country championships in Brussels.

Merrien (pictured) marked his national debut with a fine 22nd place finish and was Britain’s fourth counter in the team competition where they finished behind Spain and France.

The Guernseyman regularly featured in BBC’s live coverage of the annual event and he can rightly be proud of a more than adequate international debut.

He certainly was pleased. ‘I had set myself a target of a top-25 finish. I was really pleased with the way it went and in a painful way I thoroughly enjoyed it,’ he said.

‘I made an important contribution to the team.’