DALE Clutterbuck will earn his first international vest tomorrow in his opening race of a year he hopes will peak with competing at the Olympic Games.

The Canvey 24-year-old runs for England in the international relay at the Great Edinburgh Cross tomorrow where he will come up against some of the best middle-distance runners in the world, including some top Olympians.

And Clutterbuck hopes he too will be able to call himself an Olympian this time next year as he targets a spot on the Great Britain team for this summer’s Games in Rio.

“The Olympics is my aim,” he said. “I’m not even thinking about it as a chance, I’m thinking of it as an aim.

“I’m much more confident now and getting to the Olympics for me is the minimum.”

Clutterbuck’s confidence has come from an amazing breakthrough year in 2015 where he made himself one of the best middle-distance runners in the country.

He set a new 1,500m personal best of 3m 38.65s and won a bronze medal at the national championships, as well as running 1m 48.10s for 800m.

That form has helped him win a selection for the England team for tomorrow’s 4 x 1,000m relay and he hopes that will provide him with the springboard for another big season.

“The last year has given me massive confidence,” he said. “I did all that off the back of seven or eight months of injury-free training.

“It’s not until you have been training for 18 months that you really feel the benefits and I’ve done that now, so it’s really exciting.

“I feel like I almost jumped a level last year. I went from running a British Athletics League meeting one week to racing in the Brussels Diamond League the next. It was crazy.

“I’ve worked really hard this winter, putting in a lot of miles and doing a lot of weights and wasn’t planning to start racing until the Southern Indoor Championships but this opportunity has come around and I couldn’t say no. It’s my first international vest.”

Despite not being a big fan of cross-country running, Clutterbuck is confident tomorrow’s event will suit him.

It’s a fairly flat 1km course with the relay seeing teams from England, Scotland, Great Britain, Europe and the USA going head to head.

“I think it will suit me down to the ground,” he said. “I’ll just sit in and hopefully finish strongly.”

Clutterbuck, who has just agreed a sponsorship deal with Nike, will turn his focus to the indoor circuit after this weekend and has one eye on the World Indoor Championships.

“I’m building up to the national championships,” he said. “I’ve got a few races abroad in Belgium and Germany and I’m hoping to make the GB team for the World Indoor Championships. The qualifying time is 3m 39.5s and I think that’s well within my range.”