Workington athlete Oliver Dustin is earning plaudits after scooping 800m gold in the European Athletics U20 Championships today.

Dustin, 18, earned his first call-up to the Great Britain squad for the championships in Borås, Sweden and he had no doubt about where he wanted to finish.

And he achieved his first place goal, with Britain actually taking the top three places in the 800m final.

Dustin won his qualifier in a time of 1:51.85 and then upped his game further in the final to win in 1:50.56, just holding off team-mates Ben Pattison and Finley McLear.

The former Keswick School pupil hoped that a strong performance in the 800 metres could pave the way for more GB call-ups and regular showdowns against the continent’s best racers – and he could just have guaranteed himself that with this superb performance.

He said before his departure for Sweden: “That’s my target; I want to be consistently running for GB, travelling around the world and competing.”