Dobson 'very confident' for 400m Olympic trials

Charlie Dobson took 0.08 off his previous personal best time in Rome

European 400m silver medallist Charlie Dobson believes the "momentum" is with him as he now looks to secure a place in the Great Britain team for the Paris Olympics.

Dobson ran a personal best time of 44.38 secs to finish second behind Belgium's Alexander Doom at the European Athletics Championships in Rome on Monday.

And he now needs a top-two finish at the British Olympic trials in Manchester on 29 June to make sure of a trip to the French capital next month.

"That's the ultimate aim for me. I'm feeling very confident," the Colchester-born 24-year-old told BBC Essex.

Dobson was a member of the GB quartet that won relay gold at the 2022 European Championships, but silver in Rome was his first individual medal at senior level, having moved up from 200m.

"The momentum is with me now and I'm looking forward to putting it down on British soil," he said.

"The Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. and having missed it three years ago because of injury, making it this year would be the icing on the cake for me."

Dobson will face opposition in Manchester from Matthew Hudson-Smith, who opted to miss Rome after breaking his own European record with a time of 44.07 at the Bislett Games in Oslo last month.

But both would make the GB team should they finish first and second as they have both run the Olympic qualifying time.

"I was over the moon with it. I couldn't have done much more in the race," Dobson said of the European Championships final.

"As the season goes on you get used to racing more and more, you sharpen up. You do all the hard work in the winter and when race season starts it's more about perfecting what you've been practising."

He added: "Not a lot goes through my head when I'm running. The way I did it in the final was pushing out (at the start), then staying relaxed on the back straight, pushing hard on the top bend and then holding on for dear life at the end.

"I wasn't really focusing on anyone else, just on my own race and it worked out pretty well."