RICHARD Buck insists it is a medal and not the clock that is occupying his mind after the 400 metre runner booked himself a spot in today’s final at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki.

The City of York Athletics Club star, whose season’s best is 45.61 seconds, headed to Finland looking to dip under the Olympic ‘A’ Standard of 45.30 seconds to claim the final individual 400m spot available for London 2012 after Martyn Rooney and Conrad Williams wrapped up two of the three places at the weekend’s Olympic trials.

Although Buck, 25, failed to secure the Olympic ‘A’ Standard yesterday, he lives to fight another day in Helsinki as his semi-final time of 46.13 seconds was good enough for second, earning him a place in the final.

Despite the prospect of London 2012 looming in front of him, Buck admits he only has eyes for the podium in Finland.

“It’s a major final so I am happy to be there, looking at the time I feel like I should have had it in me to win that semi, but I’m at least in the final now so I need to go and recover and see what I can do,” he said.

“I’m not focusing so much on the time, I just wanted to do what I can at a championships. So I need to recover now and see how the final goes.

“It’s very hard to chase times especially to a deadline so close, so my aim the whole week was to perform as well as I could in a championships, and to hope that by keep doing what I could do racing wise the times would be getting there.

“I’d love an ‘A’ Standard, but at worst I want to prove to selectors that I’m at least going to contribute strongly to a relay team.”

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