AN execution at the Palace is what’s needed to keep alive York athlete Richard Buck’s World Championships dream.

The Great Britain team for the World Championships is announced on Monday leaving the 24-year-old City of York Athletics Club 400 metres star one last chance of making the trip to Daegu in South Korea later this month.

His bid to qualify last weekend at the national trials in Birmingham petered out in the final, where he finished sixth.

So Buck’s night of one-lap destiny is on Friday when he will contest an international race at the Aviva London Grand Prix at London’s Crystal Palace track.

“It’s the final chance to make the World Championships and I am hoping to set things straight,” said the GB international.

“If I can get the execution of the race right then I think I can get the time needed to make Monday’s team.”

Back at Birmingham, Buck experienced contrasting fortunes in his brace of races.

To qualify for the final he impressively swept to victory in his heat with a time of 46.02 seconds.

However, after looking poised to make a dash for the line at the 250-metre mark in the final, he was overhauled to finish a disappointing sixth in 46.10, below his personal best of 45.99 achieved in Switzerland earlier this year.

“I think the first race took more of a toll on me than I thought,” he recalled.

“Getting to the final was an achievement in itself because I had a fantastic race in the heat, holding off until after 300 metres and just sailing through.

“In the final, though, I think I ran the first 200 too fast and that took too much out of me.”

However, Buck is confident there is plenty left in the tank.

“The 46.10 time in the final was not too bad,” he said. “But I am looking for half a second faster than that.

“Hopefully there’s plenty more to come off the times which I have been running, so if I can execute the right race I can get around 45 seconds.

“It’s about getting the balance between speed and endurance.”

The days up to Friday’s make-or-break race at Crystal Palace, added Buck, left, would be spent ensuring he did not overdo his training.

“It’s just about keeping a bit of tempo and making sure there’s speed left in my legs after last weekend’s race double.”

He was hoping the Palace track would help to inspire him.

“It was only last year that I first ran at Crystal Palace, but I like the track,” he said. “The fact that it’s all enclosed and the stands are near to the track also gives it more atmosphere.”