Rio Olympics spot just a whisker away for Hamilton hurdler

Cameron French hopes to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

When Cameron French was in his second to last year at St Pauls Collegiate, his coach told him he was going to run the 400m hurdles. That's now his main focus - at the Rio Olympics.

Cameron, 23, holds the New Zealand record for 400m hurdles and also has the fastest time in New Zealand this year for the 100, 200, and 300m hurdles.

Cameron said he did "alright" at school.

"I went and got right through to North Island champs and that was when I hit the hurdle and bailed.

"I said to myself, 'oh well, that's good, I can come back next year and see if I can do better, see if I can beat these guys'... because I was winning at the time."

In his last year of school he got through to the nationals and in 2011 he went to the Oceania Athletics Championships and won.

"That's when I thought, I could do alright at this. I decided then to go full-time into training and see if I could go through to the Commonwealth Games and I missed that by .4 of a second. But it was nice to be that close, I didn't realise that I could ever be that close."

Camerons's long term goal has always been to get to the World Championships and then Rio for the 2016 Olympics.

The qualifying time for Rio is 49.4 seconds for the 400m hurdles and the qualifying time for World Champs this year is 49.5 seconds. Cameron's current personal best is 49.7 seconds.

Cameron will be warming up in Australia this coming weekend at a down under series which is used as preparation for athletes who are headed to the World University Games. He is competing in the 400m hurdles tomorrow and the 200m hurdles on Sunday. He will then compete in the World University Games in South Korea from July 3-14.

Cameron is hoping to win and qualify for world champs while he is there.

"I'll be chasing the 49.5 and 49.4."

If he doesn't make the time, there is still a chance he will go through if he makes it into the top 40 in the world for his event. He is currently ranked 30th in the world but would prefer to have a guaranteed spot instead of having to rely on rankings.

"It's a bit of a game from now on in unless I run the time. This is probably my last shot at racing this year unless I get in to world champs, then that'd be another couple of chances there to qualify for Rio."

The qualifying period for the World Championships ends August 11 but the qualifying period for Rio goes right through till next year so he will still have a few chances to grab that time if he doesn't qualify this time round.

Cameron has had to fundraise to get himself to the World University Games and as a full-time athlete and student, every bit helps.

"We are always looking for support or anything like that, being a student and athlete, it's sort of hard to find income in survive really, I'm always looking for sponsorship."

Cameron's girlfriend Camille Buscomb is heading to Australia with him to compete in the 5km track event this weekend.

"She is in a similar boat to me... we are both trying to qualify for World Champs this year and both chasing the Rio as well."

Six years on from his first experience with hurdles, French is ready to jump the next one all the way to Rio.