Buck finished second on his return from injury in Glasgow

North Yorkshire 400m runner Richard Buck is targeting the qualifying time for the World Indoor Championships in Doha, with one meeting to go.

Buck runs at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on 20 February aiming to post 47.00 seconds or faster.

The Pickering athlete told BBC Radio York: "I definitely feel like I'm in shape to get the qualifying standard.

"Hopefully I'll run a good race and get it. If I get it, I can't see any reason why I won't be going (to Doha)."

The 23-year-old City of York runner won last weekend's UK National Indoors 400m title in Sheffield for the third year in a row.

Hopefully at Birmingham I'll get my tactics spot on and be rewarded with a quicker time. Richard Buck

"I'm very happy with the result. It's nice to win the championship," he added.

Buck thinks he might have achieved the 47.00 mark had he not been baulked at a crucial stage of the race.

"I didn't quite run the race as I planned. At the halfway point one of the other other athletes was gunning for the inside lane, just as I was," he said.

"We were running into each other... so I had to relent and cut round the back of him. I managed to steal it on the line," he added, posting a time of 47.54.

After eight months out with injury, Buck is satisfied with the pace of his return in early 2010.

"I haven't quite managed to get out the race exactly as I wanted to yet, so hopefully at Birmingham I'll get my tactics spot on and be rewarded with a quicker time," he added.

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