CAMERON BOYEK is determined to make his mark on the senior stage next season after rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best middle-distance runners at the Great North City Games.

The 20-year-old Shildon Harrier finished tenth in the men’s mile race on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside, having established himself as one of the best juniors in the country in the last couple of seasons.

The experience of racing alongside the likes of Homiyu Tesfaye, Asbel Kiprop and Bernard Lagat has whetted his appetite for more top-level competition, even if Saturday’s outing did not quite go to plan.

“It was unbelievable to be lining up against some of the best athletes in the world, and I just want to experience more of it now,” said Boyek. “My training has been going well so I just decided to go for it and see how it felt.

“I felt good all the way round, but a couple of athletes cut in front of me with about 600m to go and that messed my stride pattern up a bit. I couldn’t really get back into it after that, but it was a great experience to line up against so many great milers. They finished a bit in front of me, but I feel as though I still put in a pretty decent performance.”

Boyek, who has been combining his running with studying at Durham New College, finished seventh in the 1,500m at the senior British Championships this summer, and is ranked in the top 12 in Europe for Under-23s.

“It’s been a good season for me,” he said. “I did four minutes for the mile, which was a big thing, and I’ve lowered my 1,500m time to 3:41.1. At the beginning of the season, I would probably have been happy with that.

“I missed five weeks in the spring because of a back injury and had to start from scratch after that. I didn’t perform quite as well as I wanted at the British Championships, but the back end of the season has been great.”

The youngster will head into next spring’s indoor season hoping to feature in the British team for the European Indoors, and will combine an increased number of senior outings next summer will an assault on the European Under-23 Championships in Tallinn.

“I’ve started to make a bit of an impact on the senior stage this year, and I want to pretty much complete that transition from a junior to a senior next season,” he said. “It’s a hard change to make because it’s a big transition.

“Hopefully, I can get a senior Great Britain vest at the European Indoors, and then outdoors there’s the European Under-23 Championships where I’ll be wanting to make the final and challenge for one of the top positions.”