AMID all the furore surrounding a gate-crasher from America, 4x400 metres man Robert Tobin became the unknown face of Britain's Olympic athletics squad when the team was named.

As the 20-year-old Hamp-shire lad dramatically dipped on the line to seize fourth place in the AAA Champion-ships at Manchester, the national media barely gave it house room.

Instead, all eyes and cameras were focused on the figure he edged into fifth - controversial American Mila-chi Davis, who was allowed to compete in the Olympic trials just days after being issued with a British passport.

While fallen one-lap idols like Jamie Baulch, Du'aine Ladejo and Southampton-groomed Iwan Thomas were canvassed for their opinions, Tobin sloped quietly in the background, untouched by the hornet's nest being stirred up around him.

Melanie Purkiss, Tobin's training partner and a 4x400m Commonwealth silver medallist for England, marvelled: "I couldn't believe it. Rob beat Malachi in the trials and was completely overlooked - he'd done so well and yet all anybody wanted to talk about was Malachi."

Not that Tobin would have minded. This shy, unassuming Southampton University student is unaccustomed to the limelight and doesn't have a controversial bone in his body.

"If you ask him how he is after training, he usually says 'tired and tight' - and that's it!" laughed Purkiss.

"But he has got a bit cheeky to Todd (coach Todd Bennett) lately, so I'm sure he'll turn into a motormouth one day.

"I'm so happy for him and proud of what he's achieved.

"He's a lovely lad and he really deserves it."

Tobin was born in Lincoln and moved to Old Basing in north Hampshire at the age seven.

A keen Saints fan, his childhood ambition was to play professional football, but he changed his mind after getting lumps kicked out of him as a jet-heeled youth striker for Basingstoke Town.

He was emerging as a promising athlete at the time and recalled: "Football got too serious in the end and I wasn't enjoying it much.

"I relied on my speed and teams kept taking me down whenever I got the ball."

An all-round gifted sportsman, Tobin was a promising spin bowler for Basingstoke & North Hants and toured with the Four Counties Youth Cricket League.

Even in athletics, he was spoilt for choice.

He started out mixing winter cross-country with the long jump and 200m in the summer but, by the time he made his first English Schools' Championships, he had switched to the 800m, limping out injured in the semi-final.

A year later, he returned to the schools' arena as a 400m man, marking the start of a promising one-lap career. As a first-year intermediate Tobin struck English Schools' silver and won gold the following year, repeating the feat as a first-year senior.

Internationally, he took 4x400m silver at the 2001 European Junior Champion-ships but a hamstring injury wrecked his world junior hopes in Jamaica the following year.

By then, Team Solent's former world indoor record holder Todd Bennett had taken Tobin under his wing.

Initially, the youngster was splitting his time between Bennett's group in South-ampton and Phil Stanley at the Basingstoke & Mid Hants club, where he is still a member. But the move became permanent when Tobin started a management sciences degree at Southampton University.

This season, Tobin has gone from strength to strength, breaking his personal best no fewer than five times.

Shortly before flying out to the Team GB's Cyprus holding camp, he joined Britain's elite band of sub-46 second men by clocking 45.89 in perfect conditions in a European permit meet in Antwerp. It placed 38th on the UK all-time list.

That magnificent run, combined with the withdrawal of Britain's world indoor champion Daniel Caines with a knee injury, will have boosted his chances of featuring in tonight's heats.

FACTFILE:

Name: Robert Tobin

Born: Lincoln, December 20, 1983

Home town: Basingstoke

Club: Basingstoke & Mid Hants

Coach: Todd Bennett

Occupation: Southampton University student

Height: 1.87 metres

Weight: 75 kilos

Education: Old Basing Infants/Juniors, Robert Mays, Alton College

Career highlights: English Schools' intermediate and senior champion, European Junior 4x400m silver medallist 2001, AAA under-20 and under-23 champion, Southern under-17, under-20 and senior champion, AAA Championships 4th 2004