WHEN Mo Farah signed off for the season at last weekend’s Great North Run, he immediately started looking forward to a well-earned break where he could indulge in some comfort food. If he’d headed to the Durham branch of a well-known chicken chain to refuel, he could have found himself being served by one of his fellow Team GB members.

Twenty-four hours before Farah completed his second Great North Run triumph, Shildon Harrier Cameron Boyek was rounding off his year with a tenth-place finish in the mile race at the Great North City Games.

The performance came at the end of a successful season that has seen the 21-year-old finish seventh in the 1,500m final at the European Under-23 Championships and set a series of personal bests as he has risen into the upper echelons of Britain’s middle-distance rankings.

Not, however, that his athletics has been all he has had to worry about. Based in Durham, and combining his running career with college commitments that have seen him re-sitting his A-levels, Boyek has been forced to work for more than 20 hours a week in KFC in order to remain financially solvent. Serving fried chicken until the early hours of the morning, it is safe to say his preparations for some of his major races have been fairly foul.

“It’s hard at the minute,” said Boyek, who has been training at Durham’s Maiden Castle. “I go to college between nine and four, Monday to Friday, but I’ve also been doing 20-plus hours a week working at KFC. I’ve had to do that to try to fund myself.

“Two nights before the run at the City Games, I was on my feet for eight hours until one in the morning, serving chicken. Thursdays have been my worst day. I get up at seven in the morning and go and meet my coach for a training session, then it’s straight into college until four, straight from there to work, where I work five until nine, and then I get home and at ten o’clock at night, I’ll be out for a run. It’s not ideal.”

Yet his performances have been good enough to command the attention of the heads of British Athletics, and from the start of next month, Boyek’s chicken-serving days will be over.

Having been offered a place on British Athletics’ high-performance scheme, the middle-distance specialist will relocate to Loughborough, where he will be based in a shared house with other athletes.

He will be able to train full-time, and will benefit from the full panoply of support specialists that can make such a difference in terms of the fine margins that separate the world elite from the chasing pack snapping at their heels.

“I’m going to be full-time down at Loughborough, and I think that gives me a real chance to prove myself,” said Boyek. “I’ve had to work so hard to get to this point, I’m not going to waste this chance now.

“It’s a good feeling to know that people think I’ve got potential. It’s the heads of British Athletics that have the final say over who goes in the house, and I’m also going to be going to Kenya this winter to train over there, which is great.

“There’ll be other training camps, and I’ll also have the full medical support, which I’ve never had before. I believe that’s the next step to being an elite athlete at the top of the sport. It would be very hard to progress any more if I stayed around here.”

And in terms of Boyek’s burning ambition, the clock is already ticking. British 1,500m running is in a state of flux at the moment, and less than a year out from the start of the Rio Olympics, it is hard to predict with any certainty which domestic athletes will be lining up in the event.

Despite his tender years, Boyek is very much part of the mix, and his first target at the start of next season will be achieving the qualifying time that will thrust him into contention for the Team GB squad.

That would guarantee him a place at the Olympic trials, and as previous history has shown, in the cut and thrust of trial races, pretty much anything can happen.

 “I definitely think Rio is realistic – 100 per cent, that’s my aim,” said Boyek. “I wouldn’t still be in the sport if I didn’t believe I could make it.

“I had a meeting with some of the endurance coaches at British Athletics, and told them this is the first year where I’ve really believed in myself as an athlete to progress. I don’t know how many athletes are doing what I’m doing – but I know most of the ones I’m up against are full time.

“If you can get the qualifying time, then it’s just about where you can finish at trials. If you finish in the top two and you’ve got the qualifying time, you’re automatically selected.

“I believe I can get my times down to where I want to be. I’ve definitely got the talent, in my opinion. It’s just about getting the best chance to develop, and that’s going to happen now.”