Injury ruled Richard Buck out of the 2010 Commonwealth Games

York athlete Richard Buck says he is aiming for medals in 2011 after an injury-hit 2010.

The 400 metres runner has set his sights on the European Indoor Championships and the World Championships later in the year.

He told BBC Radio York: "Indoors, I want to be pushing for a medal at the European Championships.

"Outdoors, I'd love to be in that 4x4 squad that's really pushing the Americans as hard as we can."

Buck has already run the fastest time indoors by a British athlete this year when he clocked 47 seconds at the Russian Championships at the weekend.

The 24-year old said: "I'd hoped for more than that. But it was still straight in at the top of the rankings. It's still the fastest opener I've run indoors in my life but I still hope there's more to come."

You can continue improving right through the entire career if you're in the right programme. Hopefully that can be me Richard Buck

He will compete at the weekend in the UK Indoor Championships in Sheffield where he hopes to put himself in the minds of selectors for the European Championships.

"We've been doing a lot of indoor work at Sheffield over the winter to train. Having the opportunity to go and train at Sheffield before this race will have helped," he added.

Buck has also been training in South Africa over the winter as part of a new training programme.

"We had a really good stint. The training camp was really good, It was really positive for me," he said.

"I've spent the last two years changing training programmes and training approaches. This new programme that I'm in is designed in a completely way to anything I've been in before.

"I think it's going to take a couple of years for this to take effect on me. I think a lot of athletes give up too early thinking they've reached a peak where physiologically you can continue improving right through the entire career if you're in the right programme. Hopefully that can be me."

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