Olympic high jumper Robbie Grabarz targets 2016 gold

Robbie Grabarz is aiming for gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after sharing third place in the high jump competition at London 2012.

The 24-year-old from St Neots added a bronze to Britain's medal tally by clearing 2.29 metres.

And he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire it had whetted his appetite for 2016.

"I can't tell you how much I want more of it. It's fantastic. Looking at a performance like that, all you can do is dream of the gold in Rio," he said.

Grabarz, who became Britain's first European champion for 50 years in June and set a personal best in the same month by jumping 2.36 metres in New York, admitted to finding the atmosphere "intimidating" and "on the verge of really scary" when he was first introduced to the crowd at the Olympic Stadium.

However, he was not distracted by the wall of noise that greeted him each time he stepped up to take his next turn.

"I had an hour and a half to let the crowd get to me and did my best not to let them get in my head and get me too excited or too nervous.

"It is difficult to contend with but it's really, really enjoyable at the same time," he said.

"I spoke to a few guys that had been out there before me and learned all I could from them. I expected loud and it was really, really loud but it was genuinely a great atmosphere."

Russia's Ivan Ukhov took the gold by clearing 2.38 after losing his official vest at one point in the competition and having to make his jump at 2.33, the height at which Grabarz's challenge ended, wearing a t-shirt.

"To be that distracted - you could see he started to panic and he's one of the most chilled out, cool guys out there - and then clear the bar, that was genuinely impressive," Grabarz added.

"I thought 'that's a guy who's here to win, nothing else'. He was never going to settle for second.

"Whatever someone else jumped, he'd have gone one better."