SOUTH Essex pair Jessica Judd and Adam Hickey will be representing Great Britain in the European Cross-Country Championships in Bulgaria on Sunday.

Hickey flies out to Sofia with the British team today while Judd has already arrived in Eastern Europe after opting to travel early to acclimatise to the conditions, which will be something the British athletes won’t be too familiar with.

The host city of Samokov, which is 55 kilometres outside of the capital Sofia, is 1,300 metres above sea level and has seen snow fall in recent days.

And both Hickey and Judd admit it is going to be a bit of a step into the unknown.

“It’s going to be completely different conditions to that what I’m used to,” said Hickey, who won a bronze medal in the event last year with the British senior men’s team. “It’s going to be at altitude, cold and the course looks tough, so it will be a lot different to last year.”

Southend AC star Hickey, 26 finished as the sixth senior in the trial race in Liverpool two weeks ago and his aim is to be among the first four Brits home on Sunday afternoon.

“That’s the plan, to get into the scoring four,” said Hickey who finished 25th in Belgrade last year.

“That course was fairly flat,” he said. “So this is going to be completely different.

“I don’t really have a favourite type course. I give it everything whatever the course throws at me and that’s what I plan to do on Sunday.

“I think we’ve got a really good team and hopefully we can win a medal again.”

Judd, 19, will be hoping an extra day acclimatising to the altitude will give her an advantage in the junior women’s race.

After missing last winter through injury, she has returned to cross-country running in style this season, winning the under-20 European Championships trial race in Liverpool two weeks ago and Judd says she is targeting a top 10 finish.

“I’m just going to go and see what happens,” said Judd, who has been using an altitude tent at university in Loughborough to try to prepare herself for the conditions she is likely to face.

“It would be nice to be in the top 10 and anything beyond that would be a big bonus.

“There is a lot of stuff we are going to have to deal with. It’s going to be really, really cold, it will be muddy and it is at altitude.

“So I’m just going to go and enjoy it and whatever happens, happens.”

This will be Judd’s second European Cross-Country Championships and her last as a junior athlete.

Two years ago in Budapest she finished 13th and helped the British team to a team gold medal.

She was the baby of the team then but now, with a host of major international championships behind her on the track, she is very much the senior figure on the team.

“It is a bit strange,” she said. “I can’t believe this is my last year as a junior.

“Everyone was asking whether I was really still a junior at the trials a few weeks ago and I kept having to say ‘I am, I am! It just doesn’t feel like it!’”

“It will be nice to end my junior career on a high and I think we’ve got a really good team and have a really good chance of doing well. I’m really excited.”