BASILDON'S rising middle-distance star James Shane cannot wait to make his senior Great Britain debut at the European Team Championships this weekend.

The 21-year-old received a late call-up to run the 1,500m at the event in Stockholm after proving to selectors he is in the form of his life.

The former pupil at Billericay’s Mayflower High School had been selected as a second option for the event, behind Colin McCourt.

But after Shane ran a lifetime best of 3m 39.11s in Spain, the team selectors made a late decision to select him and not the Aldershot and Farnham athlete for the championships.

“Obviously I’m really pleased,” said Shane, who runs for Newham & Essex Beagles. “It was a bit of a shock when I heard I was the second option to go to Stockholm. It was great to even be considered, but I didn’t expect to go.

“So to receive the news I would be going was brilliant.

“It will be my first senior GB vest and it will be nice to get my face known around the biggest names in the country.”

Upon learning the news, Shane and his long-term coach Martin Brown were forced to hastily rearrange his race programme.

A scheduled appearance at Saturday’s BMC Gold race at Watford was cancelled in favour of more training time on the track.

“If I had raced over the weekend it would have meant six races in four weeks, which is too much,” said Shane.

“I needed to get some quality training in. Although I’m running well, I want to be able to go faster, not stay at the same pace and to do that I need to train.”

That said, Shane does not expect to run a fast time in Stockholm this weekend in a race where team points are more important than times.

“I’ve watched last year’s race and it was very tactical,” said Shane. “It came down to a last lap tear up and I’m sure it will be the same this time around.”