Matthew O'Dowd will represent Great Britain at the European Cross-country Championships after powering to victory in the national qualifiers.

The Swindon Harrier won the Reebok Margate Cross Challenge in convincing fashion, breaking away from the pack alongside Glynn Tromans, the English national champion, and then easing clear in the last half mile.

O'Dowd, 24, booked his place on the British team for the championships in Sweden in three weeks, having just missed out last year.

The first three qualify automatically for the six-man team, and the former Commonweal pupil was unlucky to miss out when he finished fourth 12 months ago.

However, the issue was never in doubt this year on the 9.5km Kent course as he and Tromans stormed away from the pack.

"It was nice," he said. "It was probably the top win of my career. I suppose it makes me one of the top runners in the country.

"It was my best achievement, but I'm not sure if it was my best performance.

"When we broke away, we were going away from the rest, and I was quite happy. Neither of us wanted to do anything stupid. If we stayed together, we would qualify.

"I felt relaxed and it was only in the last half-mile, when we were well clear, that I worried about coming first."

O'Dowd's display is all the more impressive given that he had to sit out most of the track season with viral fatigue.

He has bounced back from the illness which forced him to miss out on the Olympics.

He burst back to win the first race of the Reebok series in Liverpool, displaying the form that saw him finish in the top 50 in the World Championships earlier this year.

O'Dowd said: "I seem to have recovered fully. I started the year on a high note and I am finishing on a high note.

"I don't think I have a chance of winning the Europeans, but if I run well, I could make the top ten."

The Great Britain team will be defending the title they won in Slovenia last year.

O'Dowd is taking a year out from a Masters at Loughborough University and is working part-time at Sweatshop, a specialist running shop in Nottingham.

His main goal is to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Canada next summer.

Calne runner Dave Mitchinson finished eighth in Margate.