RICHARD BUCK’S dreams of competing at next summer’s Olympic Games in London have suffered a huge blow after he lost his funding from UK Athletics.

The 24-year-old, who has won four medals for Great Britain at World and European Indoor Championships in the 400m and 4x400m relay teams, has lost second-tier “podium relay” funding worth around £20,000.

Former Lady Lumley’s School pupil Buck now has to try and find the cash to continue his winter training, pay medical bills, fund training trips, along with paying the rent and buying food.

He is appealing to businesses to sponsor him to help ease the burden as he aims to get back on the medal trail.

Kelly Sotherton, the bronze medal winning heptahlete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and now a 400m runner, is the highest profile athlete to lose her funding from the game’s governing body, while multiple gold winning sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis has been cut from the top-level.

Announcing the decision, Charles van Commenee, UK Athletics head coach, said: “We operate in a results driven business in which clear decisions have to be made if athletes are not performing to the high standards we expect.”

Buck, who was the first Ryedale athlete to win a medal at a major games for 43 years when he was part of the silver winning relay team at the European Indoors in Turin in 2009, said he will not allow the setback to detract him from his goals.

“I have put in too much work and have sacrificed too much to give up on it now,” he said of the Olympic ambitions. “It is really tough for this to happen so close to London 2012. It is definitely a bit of a shock.

“With podium relay funding, you get £10,000 to cover rent and the cost of living such as food and fuel. You receive full medical cover and access to two training camps – one in the winter and one at the start of the season. They are worth around £3,000 each.

“They had been brilliant for me. Last year we had so much bad weather and you couldn’t get out on the track.

“That came just as I was leaving for South Africa and it showed in my performances in the indoor season. I didn’t miss much training while others were a bit hit and miss.

“I’m not going to receive any of that.”

Buck subsequently won a bronze relay medal at the World Indoors in Doha last year and, earlier this year, claimed an individual bronze in the 400m at the Europeans in Paris and a silver as part of the relay team.

While acknowledging his outdoor campaign had not gone as well as hoped, the athlete, who moved to Loughborough in order to benefit from training opportunities at the English Institute of Sport, admits he is a little aggrieved to have been put out in the cold.

“I can see where they are coming from,” he said.

“I set myself very ambitious targets for the outdoor season and I believed it was going to be my breakthrough. I always feel like I have been competitive. I have given a good account of myself.”

He continued: “With everything I have done, and the medals, I would have hoped to still get the support. I will deal with that and move on and still be as competitive as possible.”

Buck reckons he needs to raise £15,000 to continue as he does now, including the warm weather trips, or a minimum of just under £7,000 to cover his living costs. Should he not be able to do that, he is likely to have to change his training programme to accommodate taking a job.

“I’m going to keep doing it full-time for as long as I can,” he added. “I am fortunate in that my coaches (Kevin Tyler and Steve Fudge) both believe in me and feel I shouldn’t have exited the programme. I think they will support me for the next 12 months.

“They still think that I can challenge for medals at the Indoors and the Olympics. If I can raise the money, without compromising my training, it will have a massive benefit. Otherwise, I will have to seek out work.

“In the next three to four months I will be training 30 to 40 hours a week. I have no problem with taking work but, obviously, it’s not the best to work at a bar until 1am after training and then get up for training.”

But Buck is already looking forward and is targeting the World Indoor Championships, in Istanbul next March, as the chance to re-establish himself on the big stage. “It’s a massive chance to do well.”

Anyone who potentially wants to sponsor Buck can email him at bucky400@hotmail.com.