Buck achieves new personal best

Buck is in the third year of a degree at Leeds Metropolitan University

Yorkshire 400m runner Richard Buck set a personal best of 46.22 seconds at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham.

The City of York runner led at 300 metres but eventually finished second to Tyler Christopher.

"I wanted to run a bit quicker at the weekend but I'm still really happy that I've come out with a personal best," Buck told BBC Radio York.

"My next big competition is the Europeans, so it's going to give me a lot of confidence going into that."

Buck, 22, was drawn in the awkward lane six in Birmingham, which prompted a discussion of tactics with both his York-based coach and the Great Britain coach.

If I'd run it a bit differently I might have been able to clock a faster time

Richard Buck

"All three of us agreed that the best way to run [the race] was to be really aggressive.

"I led it to 300 metres and then just faded in the home straight."

Christopher's time of 46.08s was the best in the world this year but Buck believes he can run faster.

"It's very achievable, a sub-46 run is just waiting to come out."

Buck said it is important to pace the run and lane six on an indoor track was a hard place to do that.

"The way the race was run at the weekend I was always going to struggle to do it, having gone through 200 metres so quickly.

"It's an energy trade-off you've got to do, going through [the early stages] quick as to how much you've got left in the second lap to come home in.

"If I'd run it a bit differently I might have been able to clock a faster time but that's a bit of experience which I'm going to take into the next race.

"Indoors it brings a whole new tactical element to it, you've got to make decisions in a few tenths of seconds and just be able to read the race."