Promising distance runner Richard Goodman has put his university plans on hold as he aims to fulfil his Olympic dream.

The 18-year-old Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers athlete is one of the country’s brightest prospects and has already had success in several high-profile events, including a gold medal in the Junior National League Finals this year.

Goodman, a former student at the Jewish Free School in Kenton, has not yet given up on a place at next year’s Olympics in London but recognises it will be tough to qualify.

“I am aiming for the Olympic 2016 games in Brazil when I will be at the peak of my age and fitness,” he said. “I will be 24 or 25 and then there will be the European and World Championships around that time too.

“Never say never but the London Olympics is a bit of a long shot. I need to run a qualification time which is ten seconds off my personal best. It is not a million miles off but four or five years from now will be my time to shine.”

It has been a remarkable rise for the Stanmore-based runner after he was spotted at a school cross country event at the age of 14.

Goodman has no previous sporting achievement of note in his family and he admits his success in recent years has been “dramatic”.

He said: “I was just playing football and I suddenly grew physically and decided I wanted to pursue running. Running is one of the natural things that humans do.

"It has completely changed my life. I am experiencing new things every year and I am finding the whole thing really exciting.

"It has been quite difficult trying to balance my social life with the hard training. I lost lots of free time and my friends found it quite difficult.

"But we have accepted that we are going our separate paths, they are going to university and I am concentrating on this. I have not changed as a person though; running is just what I do."

Goodman has competed in several senior international events including the World Cross Country Championships in Poland, and winning the McCain UK Cross Country Challenge and the Aviva London Grand Prix Diamond League.

He finished his A-Levels this summer and says he is planning to take up a university scholarship at Oklahoma in the United States, but "has not signed on the dotted line yet".

"It is the discipline that attracts me," he said. "The structure of my life has changed so much over the last three to five years.

"I have competed and won events and also trained in Kenya this year. It has taken me all around the world. I have also noticed that the competitiveness is much friendlier in comparison to football which I did not enjoy as much. I now have the running bug."

Goodman was talking ahead of the McCain Cross Challenge taking place in Liverpool on Saturday 26th November. For more information on how to get involved in athletics, visit www.mccaintrackandfield.co.uk.