TEAM Southampton's Emma Duck is knocking on the door of selection for next month's European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg (August 7-13).

The 25-year-old from Townhill Park, Southampton, left, is chipping away at the elite standard qualifying time of 56 seconds for the 400 metres hurdles.

Duck continued her fine 2006 form in Norrtalije, Sweden, last weekend, finishing 14-hundredths of a second clear of Swedish runner-up Erica Martensson to win in 56.99 seconds.

It was less than half a second outside her season's best of 56.65 set at Crystal Palace last month in the South of England Championships.

With three places available for Gothenburg, Duck, who is coached by Todd Bennett in Southampton, currently ranks fourth in the UK behind Tasha Danvers-Smith (54.85), Lee McConnell (55.25) and Nicola Sanders (55.32).

Earlier this year Duck joined forces with training partners Melanie Purkiss and Helen Kargounis, plus Jenny Meadows, to break the British national 4x400m relay record at the IAAF Indoor Championships in Moscow.

Wendy Gee with the best athletics coverage in the south