WITH four months to go until Rio 2016, Great Britain athlete Shelayna Oskan-Clarke is hoping to confirm her place at the prestigious competition this summer.

After a breakthrough year in 2015, which saw Oskan-Clarke set a new personal best and fifth position in the World Championships in Beijing, sights have now been set on the greatest stage of all.

Oskan-Clarke has run the qualifying time for the Olympics, but all eyes will be set on the British Championships in Birmingham this June where she must finish in the top two to gain automatic qualification for Rio.

The middle-distance runner, who is a part of WSEH Athletics Club, commented: “I’m happy with the progression in my training. I went out to Kenya for my base training and I was happy with how that went.

“It’s important to be patient with my progressions until my body is ready to take the next step forward. I’m happy with where I am going.

“I’m trying to put 100 per-cent of my efforts into qualification for Rio to represent Great Britain at the Olympics. It’s a lifelong dream and fingers crossed I have got what it takes to get me there.”

Oskan-Clarke recorded her personal best time of 1:58.86 in the 800m in the World Championships last summer. She said: “The World Championships in Beijing was my most memorable event, it was an amazing experience, the track was lovely and it was where I ran by personal best.

“I’m hoping for a similar, if not better experience this year in Rio, if I am lucky enough to qualify.

“I feel that it is really important for me to get local support and I have recently set up a campaign on Podium Partners, a crowd-funding website, to give people the opportunity to read my story and be a part of my journey.

“It’s great to give people the opportunity to support my journey to Rio and it is a fantastic feeling for me knowing I have support from local people.”

Oskan-Clarke set up her campaign through Get Berkshire Active, the County Sport Partnership for Berkshire.

The crowd-funding initiative has been set up to provide athletes, sports clubs, coaches and schools the opportunity to raise much needed funds to progress their sporting chances and expertise.

Visit http://gba.podiumpartners.org/ to find the campaign for Oskan-Clarke.