Karl Billington has only run 10,000 metres on the track once in his career, and that was only last month, but the Blackburn Harrier produced a performance that has catapulted him into the Great Britain Team for the European Junior Championships.

Today he will step out onto the track at Tallinn in Estonia to make his Great Britain debut in the 10,000m final on the opening day of the Championships.

Until this season, he had gained his greatest successes over the country, representing the English Schools’ cross country team in 2008 and making his England debut for the U20 cross country team in Belgium last year.

This season he has continued to impress, representing England again at the Home Countries’ International before turning to the track for the summer.

In May, Billington won the U20s 1500m and 3000m at the Lancashire Championships shortly after lowering his personal best for the 1500m to 3:52.29 in the Stretford ‘Gold Standard’ Meeting.

He went back to the same venue on June 12, just days after his 19th birthday for his first 10,000m track race at the North West Championships.

Running against a mix of senior and junior athletes he was the second U20 home as the top three in his class shot to 1-2-3 in the 2011 ‘Power of 10’ National Rankings List.

Billington clocked 30:58.13 behind Paul Thompson of Birmingham (30:30.97) and in front of Glasgow’s David Vernon (31:03.14). All three will line up in Estonia today.