COLCHESTER’S Dominic King says he has no intention of hanging up his race-walking shoes despite the disappointment of missing out on the Tokyo Olympics.

The international race walker was controversially omitted from the Team GB squad for the Olympic Games by UK Athletics, despite breaking a long-standing British record at Olympic trials in Slovakia, at the end of March.

King, who is the highest ranked British Walker, wrote an open letter to Team GB regarding his non-nomination but was still left out.

But despite his bitter disappointment in missing out on the chance to compete at his third Games, the Colchester Harriers athlete has vowed to keep striding on - and has Paris 2024 in his sights.

King said: “I’ve got no intention of hanging up my shoes.

“This has just made me want to fight harder and a lot of that is because I’ve got my twin brother (Daniel) to train with and a supportive community around me.

“Paris is only just over 1,000 days away – that’s how I look at it.

“When you break that down into long sessions, it’s not that far away.

“There’s no 50k in that Olympics but there’ll be another race walk.

“There’s also World and European Championships, so there’s still plenty to race for.”

Meanwhile King says missing out on the Olympic Games in such a fashion has had a detrimental effect on his mental health.

The experienced race walker believes the overall selection process in elite sport needs to be reviewed.

The plight of American gymnast Simone Biles in Tokyo put the issue firmly in the spotlight after she pulled out of the team gymnastics citing mental health concerns.

King said: “The main reason why I’m being quite vocal about it is not because of just me; it’s because I’ve seen at first hand the damage a decision like this can have on someone’s mental health.

“I’ve seen how it affected my brother (Daniel), 12 or 13 years ago.

“It was a similar situation – he actually qualified for the Beijing Olympics and was told back then by the performance director at the time ‘you’re never going to make it’.

“Him going to the Olympics or not going to Olympics was based on one guy’s opinion and again, it was a situation of someone who didn’t understand the event.

“That had a detrimental impact on my brother, on his mental health but also because he’s always had that in the back of his head that he’s not valued.

“I’ve spoken to a female athlete from another event who went out to try and prove the selectors wrong in terms of the result but it really damaged her life.

“She had an eating disorder and got very ill and this is the damaging impact and the dark side of sport that you don’t see.

“You put your life on hold to try to qualify for these major competitions and someone in a 20-minute meeting can suddenly dash your hopes that you’ve been working towards.

“Elite sport in general needs to be looked at and reviewed – the whole funding system.”