Six months ago, James Ellington was up for auction on internet site eBay in a last-ditch attempt to attract some much-needed sponsorship.
In six weeks time he will be running for Great Britain at the Olympic Games.
The 26-year-old won the 200 metres at Sunday's trials at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium in 20.56 seconds and, with the 'A' qualifying standard already in the bag, is guaranteed a place on the team for London.
His story began last December when the Newham and Essex Beagle was forced to resort to eBay, where he had a reserve price of £30,000, to find the sponsorship which would allow him to train full-time.
When the auction closed delight turned to despair when the highest bidder turned out to be a hoax, only for shaving company King of Shaves to step in and offer him a genuine deal.
"(Today is) the best day of my life, serious," said Ellington, who is on the lower standard podium relay rather than podium lottery funding after being plagued by injury.
"I said from the beginning all I needed was the backing and the support so I could train full time, hence the eBay idea.
"I'm a very determined person and I was just trying to think outside the box. All the other ideas, sending off emails, weren't working so I thought 'let's do something different' and it worked, thank God.
"Obviously with the backing I've been able to train full-time and that's within a matter of five months. And now you've seen the results.
Ellington finished 0.07secs ahead of Cardiff's Christian Malcolm, who took second to also book his Olympic spot.
And Ellington, who was previously coaching children to make ends meet, which only allowed him to train up to four days a week, insisted he always believed he would make the London team.
"I dreamt it, that was the whole idea," he added. "I thought I need to give it a go this year, because if it's going to happen it's got to happen this year. And it paid off, big time.
"There are people who want to be your best friend when you're running well, as soon as you're not running well they don't want to know you.
"But that doesn't bother me, because I always knew what potential I had and I think I've shown everyone today."
