Martyn Rooney broke into the top ten British 400m runners of all time on Saturday and then paid tribute to the Croydon Harriers club that raised him.

The 21-year-old superbly broke the 45-second mark for the first time at his home grand prix at Crystal Palace, thrashing the field to win in 44.83 seconds, smashing his personal best by almost half a second.

Having now set his sights on making the Olympic final next month, he was quick to praise the Croydon club and coach Mike Fleet.

“Mike has coached me since I was 11 years old,” said Rooney.

“He is somebody that’s taught me the basics and he put me through to junior rounds in 2003 with permission to go and train with elite runners, so without Croydon Harriers I wouldn’t be here where I am today.

“Mike’s a lovely guy. He put me in the position to race against the big guys and to have the people of Croydon Harriers behind me has really helped to put me in the right positions. At Championships there is always someone I can talk to, Mike’s normally there.”

Rooney became the first European to break the 45 second mark this year, making him the 12th fastest man in the world this year and moving him ahead of Kriss Akabusi in the all-time British rankings.

“It’s something I have done now so hopefully I can do it again and again and again,” he said.

“I have been threatening it all year so it’s just great to get it done, especially at Crystal Palace in front of my home crowd. I’m really happy.

“It’s massive for a British runner of my age and it’s a big step in the right direction.

“I have been speaking to people like Jamie Baulch and Iwan Thomas and they are just saying keep going, run a quick 300m and hold one. I did that and it’s great to do a 44.8.”

While thoughts of medalling in Beijing might be a bit premature, Rooney is confident he can make the final on August 21.

“If I don’t make the final I’ll be disappointed, but hopefully I will go there and put in a good performance.

“Once I’ve done something I will stay with it. I’ve been consistently running 45.3 seconds this year for fun so hopefully I will just do sub 45 from now on and that would be a good season.”

Rooney was due to run in Monaco last night as he looks for further improvements on his time before flying out to Macao to join up with the rest of Team GB on Monday.

“I wanted to get two races where I was running consistent 44’s and hopefully build upon that,” he said. “So I’m going to go to Monaco and hopefully back it with another 44 and then on to Beijing.

“I’m going to be racing against guys who are running 43 seconds so I’m just going to be getting pulled around for quicker times hopefully, so we’ll just see how it goes.”