Hackney runner Reuben Arthur is eyeing up his first taste of BUCS Nationals as a breakthrough competition – safe in the knowledge that he is tantalising close to being among the world’s best.

The 60m sprinter heads to Sheffield brimming with confidence, with bettering his 6.71s personal best firmly in his sights after a consistent start to the current campaign.

Starting on Friday the BUCS Nationals will see more than 6,000 students from across the country descend on the Steel City for three action-packed days of sport.

And with just two-hundredths of a second preventing the 20-year-old from breaking the 6.70s barrier, Arthur is certainly harbouring tangible ambitions.

“In sprinting, it’s important to get that consistency and I think I’ve found that,” he said. “I’m on the level that I can think I can run consistently but now I’m keen to keep that going and to run even faster.

“You can always drop a bit more, but for Nationals I want to go in with the mentality that I can win the competition, and I know if I have that mindset then I can push myself to get those times.

“I’ll be lying if I said I didn’t have the aim, I’m so close to getting to 6.69 which would put me among the best in the world. So if I can get that at BUCS Nationals it would be fantastic.”

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the national governing body for Higher Education (HE) sport in the UK, organising leagues and competitions for more than 150 institutions across 52 different sports. BUCS Nationals is the UK’s largest annual multi-sport event, bringing over 6,000 athletes to Sheffield to compete in nine sports.