Isle of Wight hammer thrower Andy Frost heads for the Hampshire AA Championships at Portsmouth's Mountbatten Centre this weekend with the Commonwealth Games qualifying distance already in the bag.

The 21-year-old has got Manchester firmly in his sights after a heavyweight final throw at Bedford last week where he stamped his name into the record books at the Halifax British Universities Championships.

Having heaved out a personal best of 63.13 metres in the first round and improved to 63.38 in the second, Frost saved his best until last with a massive 65.01 effort that broke the oldest Championship record on the university books.

It was 25 centimetres ahead of the previous 1969 BUSA best set by Barry Williams and, more importantly, it fulfilled the Commonwealth qualifying standard with a centimetre to spare.

Ray Scovell, Frost's early coaching mentor from Isle of Wight AC, marvelled: "It was cold, windy and wet in Bedford and to do that in those conditions was tremendous.

"It puts Andy at number three in the UK senior rankings and makes him our 32nd best senior man of all time.

"When you consider he was only 21 last month and most of our leading hammer throwers are in their 30s, it's very exciting for the future.

"Andy had a groin strain about three or four weeks ago and this was only his second competition. His target this season was 65 metres and he's there already!"

While Frost will bring proven field pedigree to the Hampshire Championships, two of the county's leading track stars may well opt to give the meeting a miss.

Reigning Commonwealth and European 400m champion Iwan Thomas has entered the 100/200m sprints, but is toying with the idea of training instead.

The Welshman is in fine fettle having recently returned from ten weeks on Australia's Gold Coast. He missed three weeks' training Down Under because of a slight Achilles injury, but he is working hard again with his coach Mike Smith in Southampton and gearing up for a possible one-lap opener in Slovakia on June 1.

Before that, there is a possibility of a 200m for his club, Newham & Essex Beagles, in the British Men's League at Watford on Sunday week (May 19).

Whatever happens, Thomas will need to be at Portsmouth tomorrow to return his 200m trophy from last season, but he said: "I don't think I'll be running. I might do a couple of days' training instead and go and watch Southampton.

"I'm trying to be sensible for the long-term picture and it's a fact that running two 200s at the county championships may not be as beneficial as a hard session of, say, four 300s in training."

Team Solent's middle distance prospect Angus Maclean may also decide to train rather than compete in the 800m at Portsmouth.

The 21-year-old from Curdridge has already run once this week, winning the senior men's 3000m in Monday's British Milers' Club Classic at Millfield School. His time of 8.04.36 clipped ten seconds off his personal best and he has another big date ahead next Saturday, tackling his first 1500m of the season in the big Aqua-Pura International at Loughborough.

Coach Rod Lock said: "At the moment we're intending to train hard on the track tonight instead of going to the Hampshires.

"There are only so many races an athlete can get out of his body."

Another of Lock's charges, 16-year-old Tommy Davies, also improved his pb by ten seconds at Millfield, finishing fifth in the under-20 1500m in 3.58.5.