Cambridge University athlete travels to Parliament Hill this weekend aiming to snap up automatic selection for Serbia

When shes not running, Niamh Bridson Hubbard is doing a PhD at Cambridge University studying the four-day working week and mental health problems when you spend too many hours doing your job.

The 25-year-old says she practises what she preaches and tries to enjoy a good work-life balance. When it comes to athletics, though, she is pulling out all the stops to fulfil her potential.

I was on a real high after the Euros, she says, on her 19^th place in Brussels last month. Over Christmas I took my bike to my parents house and I think they thought I was mad turbo-ing in the kitchen.

Bridson Hubbard complements her running with plenty of cross-training, mostly on an indoor bike. Im probably in the best shape Ive ever been in, she says confidently ahead of this weekends London International Cross Country, where she will be aiming to secure World Cross selection with victory in the senior womens race.

Being selected for Euro Cross has been a really validating experience when it comes to having the World Cross as a goal, she says. I wouldnt have considered it really at the start of the winter whereas I have a bit more confidence to go for it now. Itll still be very competitive to try to make the team, though.

On the event in Parliament Hill, she adds: Not only is it a Cross Challenge race but theres the added draw of there being a home countries international and its always great to get a national vest. Then on top of that the winner will get a spot at the Worlds.

Speaking to athletes at the Euro Cross in December, I heard lots werent concentrating on cross country after Christmas. They were going indoors or on to the roads. So I think winning this race has become a little bit more of a possibility than it might have been pre-Christmas.

Bridson Hubbard has fond memories of racing regularly at Parliament Hill. She won the London Youth Games there back in 2010 and remembers: I think it was just about the first race I ever won, although the hill seemed a lot bigger back then than it does now! It was really fun as I went with all my friends and it was probably the first time I stepped back and thought I might be quite good at this.

During 2020-21 she lived on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Getting out to Parliament Hill was always the best part of my day, usually either at sunrise or dusk, she says.

I think this weekend will be more like the European races with lots of laps and twisty-turny. Eamonn Martin has sent me a photo of the course and I think it will be lots of short sharp up and downhills rather than longer drags up a hill, which I think makes it more challenging.

Bridson Hubbard went to Cambridge mainly for academics rather than athletics but she says she has been pleasantly surprised at how good it is for a runner.

Its not professionalised or formalised in the same way it might be in Loughborough or Birmingham but we had a good coach with Phil ODell and there are 40-60 of us doing grass sessions together and a healthy turn out for long runs, with a nice social scene.

She says she probably enjoys cross-country running a little more than the track but she has ambitions to break 4:10 for 1500m (her best is 4:11.13) and clocking 2:04.45 for 800m last year came as a slight surprise and made her think she should stick around at 1500m for longer before moving to 5000m and beyond.

On Saturday, though, she will need every ounce of stamina to conquer what is certain to be a strength-sapping course.