Dan Gardiner is currently Britain's hottest young decathlete. The 19 year-old is captain of his local football team in Alwoodley, a black belt in judo and a swimmer for the City of Leeds. He has also just broken the points record at the UK Junior Championships in Stoke.

Having trained with his Leeds Met Carnegie coach, Mike Stayman, since the age of 12, Dan is moving on to compete in Serbia this July in the European Junior Championships. Following that, in September, his next challenge will be beginning his degree in Sports and Exercise Science on a Leeds Met scholarship.

The gruelling decathlon event brings together the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500m. Dan has an outstanding record at the long jump event, holding the UK junior best of 7.33m in his recent championship success.

Dan commented: "Long jump is my strongest event, but the javelin has been my weakest. That's slowly improving though as I've been doing some work with Mick Hill, who has just become the director of athletics at Leeds Carnegie.

"The good thing about the scholarship scheme at Leeds Carnegie is that they can balance it out well. They look after you. I am probably going to stay at home for the first year as just moving out can affect your training."

An international career is already on Dan's mind as he contemplates the Olympics. "London 2012 would be a dream and it's on home soil. I will be quite young but I definitely think I can get there." He is already looking ahead to achieving great success in the 2016 Olympics.