ROBERT Tobin's pursuit of a place in Britain's Olympic 4x400 metres relay squad gets hotter by the day.

For the third time this season the 20-year-old Southampton University student from Old Basing, pictured above, has smashed his one-lap personal best.

Tobin's latest landmark run came at the weekend's AAA Under-23 Championships at the Bedford International Stadium, where he struck gold with a Championship best 46.29 secs. It was good enough to put him equal 58th on the UK all-time list.

Inter-counties champions Conrad Williams of Kent AC made the early running, but Tobin reeled him in round the final bend and powered away down the home straight to cross the line some six metres clear.

The winning time was 0.43 seconds quicker than 2003 champion Allan Stuart, who had beaten an injury-stricken Tobin into fourth place.

With the Olympic Trials now less than two weeks away in Manchester (July 10-11), Tobin is in the form of his young life.

He started the season with a pb of 46.71 at Oxford Univer-sity's Iffley Road track and then lowered it to 46.66 in the Loughborough International.

His latest coup comes a week after he scooped 200m silver in a speed sharpener at the South of England Championships, clocking a wind-assisted 21.33 secs.

Preparations for the Trials continue in the sunshine surroundings of Portugal this week. Tobin is warm-weather training with his coach Todd Bennett and another Olympic relay hopeful Melanie Purkiss of Team Solent.

Golden boy Tobin had a supporting cast of local silver medallists at Bedford. Sixteen-year-old Hedge End race walking sensation Nick Ball (Steyning AC) finished runner-up to Leicester's Luke Finch in the under-20 men's 10k walk, clocking 47.45.54 to Finch's 46.48.40.

Team Solent's Kieren Kelly putted the shot 16.90 metres, but the lad from Lower Bemerton, near Salisbury, had to play second fiddle to Belgrave Harriers' Chris Gearing who massively improved his under-20 championship best to 17.97.

Shock of the day was the surprise defeat of Bournemouth's Charlotte Moore by Pendle AC's Laura Finucane.

Moore - the first teenage woman in the UK to run 800m in sub-two minutes - looked set for another routine win over domestic opposition when she led at the bell and opened a five-metre advantage at 600m.

But 17-year-old Finucane surged through the pack into second and pounced down the finishing straight to win in a championship best of 2.03.73. A stunned Moore clocked 2.04.61.

Team Solent distance man Tommy Davies inexplicably finished eighth in the 5,000m in a slower time than last year.