CHARLOTTE Moore's coach Christina Boxer has admitted she was "delighted, but not surprised" about the Bournemouth AC runner's selection for Great Britain's World Championship team.

The 18-year-old 800 metres specialist only received official news of her call up yesterday for the event in Paris later this month.

Moore immediately contacted Boxer who, as well as being understandably thrilled, was adamant that the teenager is merely fulfilling her potential.

Boxer, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, said: "A week ago we could not be sure if Charlotte would make it, but I was quietly confident.

"I did not want to raise Charlotte's hopes too high though, as you can never be certain until the names are announced.

"I knew she had the ability and now she has achieved what she is capable of.

"Yet she is still very young and represents a great future prospect - that's why I believe she has been selected."

Moore won a silver medal at last month's European Junior Championships in Finland, and followed up that form with impressive times at Crystal Palace and San Sebastian this week.

Boxer said: "Chasing qualification times is the hardest thing in athletics. Rather than worrying about times, I told Charlotte to go to Crystal Palace and Spain and just race."

It was clearly valuable advice.

Moore ran a personal best in the 1,500m in London and then in a last ditch effort to secure a place in Paris, she came home in a time of 2 minutes 01.21 seconds in Spain.

Though she missed out on the automatic qualification cut of two minutes, the judges were nevertheless impressed.

After numerous successes at junior level, Moore exploded into the spotlight after finishing sixth in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester last summer, with a new personal best of 1:59.75.

However, Boxer was concerned people would expect Moore to maintain the high standard at the start of 2003.

The former British Olympic runner praised her young protg's ability to mentally cope with such high expectation.

She also recognised the role Charlotte's parents had played in helping the young star through the harder times.

Boxer said: "For Charlotte to break through last year was fantastic, but Alison and Bob Moore have been amazing at helping her through the pressure and at comforting her when races did not go her way.

"The people around her deserve a lot of credit."

Moore's first round race is on August 23, the opening day of the ninth IAAF World Championships in the Stade de France.

Boxer has confirmed that Moore will be treating the race as if it were the final.

"She will be up against the best in the world in that heat - Africans, Europeans and Americans - and to make it through and get to the semi-finals would be an amazing achievement.

"Tactically, we cannot decide how to run it until the draw is made the night before, but Charlotte has tried several different race methods this year and has learned from them."

Moore will run in the under-23 800m at the Zurich Grand Prix this weekend.

It will be her last outing before flying out to France with the 47-strong team, including Paula Radcliffe and fellow 800m star Jo Fenn, next week.