Leicestershire's Hannah Whitmore will find out tonight if she has bagged a place in the Great Britain team for the World Cross-Country Championships.

The 26-year-old Charnwood athlete put herself in contention for the blue riband event in Poland with a brilliant fourth place out of 265 finishers in the senior women's 8k at the World Trials and Inter-Counties Championships in Birmingham on Saturday.

The first three automatically qualify for the event in Bydgoszcz on Saturday, March 27. The selectors meet today and could decide to hand Whitmore one of the discretionary places after she was just six seconds away from third-placed Faye Fullerton.

Whitmore followed this route to the Worlds in Jordan last year, again after finishing fourth in the trials, but this time the situation remains clouded in uncertainty.

"UK Athletics are being a bit cagey as to whether they will send a full team," said Whitmore. "I'm on tenterhooks but I should get a phone call one way or the other tonight."

Whitmore's fourth place at Birmingham – which matched her 2009 achievement – is remarkable after an injury-hit start to the year.

She missed both the County and Midland championships with a heel injury but returned in time for the National championships where she finished 12th as Charnwood retained the team title.

"I've only run the National and a low-key league race, so I was absolutely over the moon about the result at the weekend," said Whitmore.

"There were a lot of bodies around from the start and I found myself pushed nearer the front, but I felt comfortable there and I was pleased because I thought it was a stronger field than last year.

"I'm managing the heel problem and it's not interrupting my training, so there is still plenty more to come."

Whitmore's performance helped the county team to seventh place.

But there was some late drama as Tara Krzywicki was forced to pull out on the eve of the race at Cofton Park, with Felicity Milton and Paris Williams having also been ruled out ahead of the event.

County women's team manager Ian Wilson said: "Tara twisted her ankle and had to withdraw early on Saturday morning. I was really grateful that Mary Hall agreed to run at such short notice.

"The rest of the team packed well but were just too far back to get into the medals. But this is a young team with three making their senior County debuts, and I am sure they can get into the medals next year." Round-up of the results:

senior women's 8k: 1 Freya Murray (Scotland East) 27,21, 2 Steph Twell (Hants) 27.30, 3 Faye Fullerton (Essex) 27.41. County: 4 Hannah Whitmore 27.47, 11 Gemma Steel 28.29, 81 Helen Rollins, 95 Gemma Hillier, 102 Nicola Roder 31.57, 124 Katie Lomas 32.33, 156 Amber Magee 33.19, 157 Hannah Eveleigh 33.21. Team: 1 North West 154pts, 2 Yorkshire 175, 3 Essex 250, 7 Leicestershire & Rutland.

senior men's 10k: 1 Mo Farah (Essex) 34.41, 2 Andy Vernon (Hants) 35.25, 3 Moumin Geele (Essex) 35.40. County: 60 Mark Powell 38.03, 91 Nigel Stirk 38.46, 113 Alistair Watson 39.27, 137 Peter Swaine 39.57, 153 Tim Doran 40.22, 188 Geoff Bartram 41.03, 201 Jason Williams 41.27. Team: 1 Lancs 200, 2 Yorks 259, 3 Kent 272, 17 Leics 742.

More Inter-Counties in tomorrow's Mercury.