Dom King, Student Activities and Development Manager at the University of Essex Students’ Union, underwent an intensive fitness test at the  Human Performance Unit just before he set off with Team GB for high altitude training in Font Romeu.

Dom was selected for Team GB after achieving the Olympic ‘B’ standard for the 50 kilometres walk with a personal best of 4:06:34, a time only achieved by seven other British men.

His date with destiny is on Saturday 11 August when the Olympic 50 kilometre race walk will be held on a two kilometre circuit  set up in The Mall, right outside Buckingham Palace.

All of Team GB’s endurance athletes have to measure their current level of fitness, oxygen uptake, blood and heart rate before heading to the training camp and will be measured again on their return.

Human Performance Unit Manager Dave Parry at the Centre for Sport and Exercise Science in the School of Biological Sciences said: “He has been the top ranked British race walker in 2012, and selection for the Olympics is his just reward for the huge amount of hard training and preparation that he’s put in for such a gruelling event.

“The Human Performance Unit’s small contribution to his Olympic preparation has been to provide sports science testing, which gives an insight into where the strengths and weaknesses are in Dom’s fitness.

“We’ll repeat the testing when Dom returns from his pre-games training camp, just before the Games begin, and hopefully we’ll see that he has made some last minute improvements that can help him to an even higher place finish on August 11.”

See the Team GB announcement