OLYMPIC hopeful Robert Tobin put himself a step nearer athletics selection for Athens next month when he became the new national under-23 400 metres champion.

The young Basingstoke and Mid-Hants star won Sunday's AAA final at Bedford in a new Championship record, lifetime best and club record of 46.27sec.

His winning time was 45 hundredths of a second faster than the previous record, set last year by Shettleston Harrier Allan Stuart.

Tobin was happy to avenge his defeat last year, when he could finish only fourth.

The 20-year-old from Old Basing clocked 48.05sec in winning his heat the day before.

In the final, Conrad Williams of Kent AC made the early running but Tobin overhauled him on the final bend and strode home an impressive winner by six metres.

Immediately after the meeting, Tobin left for warm weather training in Portugal with his coach, former international star Todd Bennett.

The acid test for the pairing comes a week tomorrow at the AAA championships and Olympic trials at Manchester, where Tobin has a realistic chance of selection for the British 4x400m relay squad in Athens.

After the trials, he will run in an under-23 international against Germany and Italy at Manchester on Saturday, July 24 and/or a senior international against the USA at Birmingham the following day.

Tobin's season is peaking nicely. Already with an outdoor top-10 400m British ranking, his new best time should lift him several places to stand tantalisingly just outside the top six.

His 2004 outdoor campaign began with a new lifetime best 400m time of 46.71sec in the Oxford meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of Roger Bannister's sub-four-minute mile.

Ten days later he set a new meeting record of 46.97sec in winning the Hampshire Championships at Portsmouth.

Since then he has recorded wins in Hungary, running for England, and in international permit meetings in France and Spain - all in under 47-sec times.

Two weeks ago, he used the South of England championships at Watford for some speed preparation and took the silver medal, equalling his personal best of 21.33sec to finish behind Belgrave Harrier Graham Beasley, who clocked 20.92sec.

Tobin should be joined in the Olympic trials by several other Basingstoke athletes.

One of them hoping to make the starting line-up is his elder sister Helena Tobin, who was unable to keep her place in the recent South of England championships 800m final because of a foot injury.

She finished second in her heat in 2min 10.68sec behind clubmate Tracy Joseph, who clocked 2:10.36.

Joseph was also unable to run in the final because she couldn't find a baby-sitter.

Basingstoke will have three middle-distance runners at the Olympic trials - Phil Tulba, Terry Feasey and Rob Whittle.

All three are masters graduates of Loughborough University and are coached by Barry Kitcher.

Tulba, the oldest of the trio at 30, will run the 5,000m so long as he is recovered from a hamstring injury, suffered while trying to run a 3,000m steeplechase for Loughborough against an International Select team earlier this season.

The switch to the steeplechase came at the invitation of Seoul Olympic medallist Mark Rowland.

Because of injury setbacks over the years, Kitcher believes the best is yet to come. "He's in the best shape ever and I feel the best is yet to come," said Kitcher.

Feasey, who is 26, will be running in the 800m. He just missed a medal when he finished fourth in the South of England championships in 1:50.99.

Whittle, who is 22, will contest the 1,500m. He too just missed a medal at Watford, clocking 3:50.78 to finish fifth in the 1,500m final after winning his heat.

Other Basingstoke-based athletes hoping to compete in the Olympic trials at Manchester are Katy Watts, who added the South of England silver medal to her collection with a javelin throw of 47.44m, and comeback duo Tracy Joseph, in the 800m, and her husband, Rafer Joseph, in the discus.