OLYMPIC 4x400 metres relay hopeful Robert Tobin has opted for a 200m sharpener at Watford this weekend in the South of England Senior Championships.

The 20-year-old Southampton University student wants to get in some extra speed work before putting himself on the line in next week's AAA Under-23s at Bedford, writes WENDY GEE.

It's been a red-hot start to the summer for the Basingstoke & Mid-Hants one-lapper, pictured right, who currently sits tenth in the UK senior men's outdoor rankings for 2004.

Having lowered his personal best to 46.71 seconds at Oxford University's famous Iffley Road track in May, he shaved off another slice four weeks later in the Loughborough International, where his 46.66 win broke him into the UK all-time top 100.

Tobin's sub-47 second form continued in Gava, Spain, last Sunday where he defied some unexpectedly poor conditions to lead an international field home in 46.90.

The weather near Barcelona was so bad that his race was delayed, meaning the former Basingstoke Town youth footballer missed England's Euro 2004 showdown with France.

Tobin reflected: "It was an all right run considering how awful the conditions were. There were thunderstorms, heavy rain and huge winds.

"I didn't have much choice about the way I ran it. You couldn't go off hard over the first 200m because it was against the wind."

The most pleasing aspect for Tobin was beating Irish athlete David McCarthy when, so often in past encounters, the boot has been on the other foot.

McCarthy boasts a useful pedigree having finished sixth in last season's European Under-23 Championships in Poland.

Tobin said: "Usually he's stronger than me. He beat me indoors earlier this year when he finished second in the AAAs. It's a bit of milestone actually beating him for a change."

Tobin, the reigning South of England 400m champion, would not expect to repeat that feat against the 200m speed specialists this weekend.

His target is to better the 21.33 personal best he set as a junior at the Hampshire Championships in 2002, but he admitted: "Anything under 21.5 would satisfy me."

Tobin should be joined at Watford by his Team Solent training partner Melanie Purkiss, who was second in the women's 400m in Gava in 53.45, ahead of fellow Briton Carey Marshall (53.87).