Dani Christmas is determined to repay Kelly Holmes for making her World Junior Championship dream come true.

Christmas was named in the Great Britain squad for the trip to Beijing yesterday after battling her way back from an injury which threatened to ruin her season.

The Crawley 800m runner's hopes of competing in China looked over when she tore ligaments in an ankle in March only for the double Olympic champion to coach her back to fitness.

Christmas, who is part of the On Camp With Kelly group, will now travel to Beijing next month along with Worthing sprinter Wade Bennett-Jackson but insists it would not have been possible without Holmes' help.

Christmas said: "Kelly has been absolutely amazing in the last few months. At times I had to take a step back and pinch myself that a double Olympic champion was giving me so much help.

"She has given me so much advice and put me in touch with different physios. She even paid for my treatment because I am not receiving any funding at the moment.

"I went to her house for training when I was coming back from the injury and just having her around and running alongside you is such an inspiration. I phoned her straight away when I found out I had made the squad and she was probably more excited than I was.

"I was out for three months in total and missed a lot of winter training as well due to shin splints and a back problem so to make the squad is a major achievement."

Christmas feared she had blown her chance of making the British squad after a disappointing run at the AAAs Under-20 Championships - which doubled as the World Championship trials - last weekend.

She found herself boxed in on the last lap and despite battling her way out of trouble had to settle for second place behind Emma Jackson in 2min.8.01sec.

Holmes had to console Christmas after the race as only the winner was guaranteed a place in the squad but the fact she had achieved the qualifying time of 2min.6sec was enough to convince the selectors.

Christmas added: "I was distraught because I thought I might miss out.

"I rang the selectors to find out if there was anything I could do to boost my chances of making the team and they said I didn't need to worry because I was already in.

"It was such a relief because it has been my target to go to Beijing since last August. Every training session has been geared towards achieving that goal.

"It is going to be the biggest event I have ever competed in. I won gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games but the standard will be so much higher in Beijing.

"Some of the times the girls I will be competing against are running are phenomenal so it is going to be really tough but it will be a brilliant experience."

Christmas and Bennett-Jackson, who has been named to run in the 100m and the sprint relay, will leave for a training camp in Hong Kong on August 5 before going on to China for the championships which begin on August 15.