Colchester's international race walker Dominic King is hoping his altitude training will help spearhead his bid for World Championships glory.

The two-time Olympian will train 1,850 metres above sea level in the coming weeks, after jetting out to the National Centre for Altitude Training at Font Romeu, in the South of France.

King will become the first 50 kilometre race walker to represent British Athletics at a World Championships in 22 years, when he competes in London on August 13.

And the 34 year-old is determined to make the most of his time in the Pyrènèes, as he continues his preparations for next month’s big event.

King told the Daily Gazette: “It’s an opportunity for me to go away and focus on my training.

“It’s a case of me putting together the last pieces of the puzzle.

“The point of it is to make training tough so that when you come back to sea level, there’s less stress on your body.

“I’ve got some technical things to work on, as is always the case and it will hopefully be very productive.”

King has flown to France in confident mood, having clocked a new personal best (PB) in the one-mile race walk at last weekend’s Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium.

The Colchester Harriers member clocked a time of five minutes 56.80 seconds to finish fifth in the first-ever race walk at a Diamond League event and smash a sub six-minute time.

Fellow Brit Tom Bosworth broke the world record for the one-mile race walk, after winning in a time of 5m 31:08s.

“It was really good and I was pretty pleased with how it went,” said King, who previously competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.

“My aim going into the event was to try and go under six minutes and break the British record.

“I was really pleased to get another PB and to be second on the all-time list is a good achievement.

“It’s not bad for a 50k race walker!

“It was a really good experience to be walking on the same track that was used for the London Olympics.

“It was great that race walking was shown live on TV for the first time and it was brilliant to be a part of that.

“As a race walker, you don’t normally get a chance to race within the stadium because our events are on the roads.”