Heidi Westerling, a former University of Rhode Island star, has qualified for the 18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championship that will be held Sunday in Birmingham, England.

Westerling, a 2005 URI grad who who is from Acworth, N.H., will represent the United States along with Amy Yoder Begley, Serena Burla, Amy Hastings, and Elva Dryer. This is Westerling's first Team USA appearance.

The race will be telecast on <a href="http://www.univeralsports.com">Universalsports.com</a> Sunday at 4 a.m. Eastern time. A total of 47 IAAF Member Federations will compete, the most since 2004.

A total of $245,000 will be offered in prize money, with $30,000 going to the individual champions and $15,000 to the respective men's and women's team champions. The top finish for a U.S. team at this event came last year in Rio de Janeiro, where the Team USA women finished fourth. The best team finish for a U.S. men's team was sixth, in both 2005 and 2006.

Westerling is a three-time Atlantic 10 10,000-meter champion and Rhody school record holder in the 3000- and 5000-meter indoors as well as the 5000- and 10,000 meter outdoors. She ran a personal best in the marathon in the Olympic Trials, when she ran 2-hours, 41-minutes, 9-seconds. Ranked 65th entering the race, Westerling finished 26th among the 148 who took part.

-PAUL KENYON