Richard Buck on his marks on the road to the Olympics (From Gazette & Herald)

Richard Buck on his marks on the road to the Olympics

YORK’S leading athlete Richard Buck powers up his Olympic campaign by taking the high road tomorrow.

Richard Buck

One-lap specialist Buck has gained the Great Britain vest in a high-calibre 400 metres race in Scotland.

In his first outing of 2012, the 25-year-old Buck, who lost his funding from UK Athletics last year, will be out to create a favourable impression with the GB selectors for the World Indoor championships in March and also putting down a marker towards Olympic inclusion.

Buck, still a member of the City of York Athletics Club, though now based in Loughborough, is among five confirmed starters in the 400m race as part of the Aviva International Match meet at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

The others are former European indoor champion Chris Brown of the Bahamas, American ace Jamal Torrance, Miguel Rigau from Germany and Russia’s Pavel Trenikhin. The race is to be covered live by BBC television at around 2.20pm tomorrow.

Buck has raced against both Brown and Torrance during last year’s indoor season, but for all the runners it is the chance to compete at the London Olympics that is the main draw.

The opening meeting of the year gives Buck an immediate chance to shine with the former Lady Lumley’s School pupil already targeting the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, as a “massive” opportunity to re-assert his claims on the big stage.

“That’s the first aim of the year,” said Buck. “To get through the world trials and make the world indoor championships in March.

“But the main aim, as it has been for the last two years now, is the Olympics.

“The closer it gets the more you want it and you know you have to give it absolutely 100 per cent in every session you do to make sure you are ready for the Games.

“You know that if you don’t put everything in then you could end up with nothing.”

For tomorrow’s opener in Glasgow Buck was simply searching for a healthy race showing as the reward for a winter season which he said “had gone better than he expected”.

He added: “I’m not looking at qualifying times in particular as yet. It’s more about racing the distance again. It’s about getting in a 400 metres in a competitive race and this event is usually a high-quality race.”

Losing his second-tier “podium relay” funding – worth about £20,000 – was a huge blow to the one-lap star, who was won no fewer than four medals for Great Britain at World and European Indoor Championships in the 400m and 4x400m relay teams.

To make ends meet he has taken on a part-time job at a branch of a leading supermarket near his Loughborough University training base.

That means fitting 15 hours a week on the shop-floor, including stacking shelves, in with the rest of his hectic training schedule.

But Buck said the loss of his cash backing had deepened his determination to represent Britain in this summer’s Olympiad.

Said the athlete: “It was devastating to lose the funding so close to the Olympics, but I will come back stronger.

“I’m excited about the Olympics. Everywhere you look you are reminded of London.”

As he opens his campaign in Glasgow the man who became the first Ryedale athlete to win a major athletes medal in 43 years with a European Indoor Games silver in the 400m relay in 2009, is still open to potential sponsorship.

He can be emailed at bucky400@hotmail.com