STEPH Twell’s wardrobe might require an extra shelf or two. For the UK’s Olympians, a formal invitation to join the world’s elite athletes in Rio next month comes with the additional reward of enough

British team apparel to clothe a small Highland village.

“You have two main bags: opening ceremony, closing ceremony,” the Brazil-bound 5000 metres runner said, after returning from this week’s kitting out extravaganza in Birmingham. “You have casual kit, training kit, and competition kit. It’s a hefty amount to get you through the training camp, then living in the village and then competing.

“It’s an awful lot. It’s very hospitable and generous of the BOA that they want you to look the part and feel the part. I might never need to buy clothes again, at least not for a couple of years.”

The 26-year-old will be packing a separate uniform this week for the European Championships in Amsterdam where she is one of seven Scots using their Dutch diversion as a tune-up for the Olympics. Four more – hammer throwers Mark Dry and Chris Bennett, Jake Wightman in the 1500m and Twell’s 5000m rival Laura Whittle – are still vying for a chance to go to the Games.

Some A-Listers, including past European medallists Lynsey Sharp and Chris O’Hare, have opted to train rather than cross the North Sea. Eilidh Doyle will restrict herself to the 4x400m relay rather than defend her hurdles crown.

Yet for Twell, a World Championships finalist last summer, these Euros represent a glorious opportunity to cap her comeback from a debilitating ankle injury with a

major championship medal following her victory, ahead of Eilish

McColgan and Whittle, at last weekend’s trials. Sitting out was not in her plans.

“I went to them [the selectors] and said: ‘Look, it’s a straight final, not heats and finals, it won’t be as taxing.’ So I put myself forward. And I think you need those races. You don’t get the same

opportunity at trials. So I wanted to be there.”

Lennie Waite, her friend and long-time training partner, has taken a similar view, honing her steeplechase craft in a competitive outing before turning her mind to the Games.

“I think it will be useful,” she said. “Plus I’ve never been to a champs before, so it will be good to get a better feel of the team and that environment.”

For Twell, who was seventh in a drug-tainted 1500m final in

Barcelona in 2010, she is out to excel.

“With how I did at the worlds, I know I’m on a pathway,” she said. “I expect to be in that class of

athletes and now I’ve got to get more of that exposure. And that’s what the Europeans can give me.”