RISING City of Salisbury runner Jake Ness is saying farewell to his Five Rivers track as he prepares to start his three-year scholarship at an American university, writes John Ruskin.

The 18-year-old flies out to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, January 5 to enjoy the world-class coaching and sports facilities at Weber State University.

Ness, who is the south of England’s under 20s' reigning champion at 400m indoors and previously stood second in the European youth rankings, will run on the newly-laid 200m track on the outside of the 17,500 seater stadium.

His coach will be American former Olympic heptathlete Tiffany Lott Hogan, a sprint specialist who is already logging data and video of his training sessions in Salisbury.

He will join the college athletics' team soon after arrival and after a few days’ acclimatisation to altitude, he will put on his racing shoes and go straight into the US winter indoor athletics' season.

Competition will be hot as he works through an away fixture list; from Potacello in Idaho to Washington, then on to Montana, Nevada, California and Colorado.

Then, he starts the outdoor season and the planned improvements to his 400m personal best to date of 47.94sec that if all goes to plan, will propel up the American rankings.

His father Lee Ness, lead coach and chairman at the City of Salisbury club and instrumental in Jake’s startling progress, said: "Jake, will of course, continue to keep us posted on how he gets on in the States.

"He’ll always be a City of Salisbury athlete – whether he likes it or not."