LINA NIELSEN NAMED TEAM CAPTAIN FOR GB & NI TEAM AT WORLD RELAYS IN CHINA

UK Athletics (UKA) has announced Lina Nielsen (Tony Lester, Shaftesbury Barnet) as Team Captain to the Great Britain & Northern Ireland (GB&NI) at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, this weekend.

The 400m hurdler is part of the women’s 400m relay team and will compete this weekend for a qualification spot for the World Championships in Tokyo later this year. The tradition is for the Team Captain to give a speech to the squad the evening before the competition. As a trained yoga instructor, Lina got the team to engage in a breathing exercise to kick off her speech. She then touched on her experiences and the power of belief in your teammates.

Last summer, Lina was part of the women’s 4x400m relay team that won an Olympic bronze medal at the Paris Games. Since then, she has gone on to break the British women’s indoor 300m record in a time of 36.53 seconds earlier this year in front of a home crowd at the Keely Klassic in Birmingham.

At the 2025 European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, she ran the first leg of the GB&NI women’s 4x400m relay team, which ran a dominant race to claim the silver medal, adding to her bronze from the mixed relay event earlier in the competition.

Nielsen, the 2024 UK Athletics National 400m hurdle champion, said;

“I’m really honoured. It’s nice to be called up to be team captain. It has made me realise that I’ve had a lot of experiences that I can draw from and hopefully give people some team morale before we get going.

“Well, as a yoga teacher I had to start my speech off with some breathing exercises, but I feel like it really got everyone calm. I wanted everyone to kind of breathe in unison so that we can all understand the goal for this weekend is to move in unison. That was my takeaway message to the team this evening, and I hope I got that across.”

Team Leader, Darren Campbell said;

“Perseverance and resilience that are two ingredients needed to be a successful athlete, and Lina has shown both qualities on and off the track. Last year, with all the different hurdles put in front of her she never lost focus or gave up on making the team for Paris. And ultimately came home with an Olympic bronze medal. I am proud to name her as captain for the GB&NI team this weekend.”