UP-and-coming pole vault ace Ashley Swain produced his second biggest clearance ever finishing sixth in the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix at Birmingham.

Although the lad from Rownhams didn't quite scale the 5.50 heights that had won him the AAA Indoor title a fortnight previously, Swain was well satisfied with 5.45.

The 23-year-old said: "It would have been nice to have improved on the 5.50 I jumped two weeks ago, but 5.45 is pretty good and shows I am consistent."

Swain, who recently left Team Solent to seek higher grade competition with Newham & Essex Beagles, had disappointingly no-heighted at five metres in the European Indoor Cup in Leipzig the previous week.

He was pleased to last distance this time, saying: "It's great to be in the mix. My target for the competition was to still be jumping when the other guys were jumping. There are just a few technical things to work on and then I can start pushing the heights up."

Germany's Tim Lobinger won on countback at 5.65 from the USA's world number two Toby Stevenson.

Team Solent's Melanie Purkiss led all the way to win the 400 metres national race, but her time of 53.85 was a third of a second outside the qualifying time for next month's World Indoor Championships in Budapest.

Coach Todd Bennett said: "It's a bit disappointing but last year Mel struggled to run that fast outdoors, so the signs are better. She ran a bit too fast through 200m and paid the price coming home, but she was by far the best athlete in the field and had to do it all herself.'

Purkiss's training partner Robert Tobin from the Basingstoke & Mid Hants club failed in his quest to achieve the 47-second qualifying time for Budapest.

The 20-year-old has posted 47.20 this season, but he came sixth this time in 47.50 in a race dominated by Chris Brown of the Bahamas (46.48). Tobin's fellow Briton, Jamie Baulch (Cardiff), was fourth in 47.35.

Tobin reflected: "At the beginning of the indoor season, we were just going to see how it went, but having come so far it's frustrating that I haven't made it."

Tobin, who is studying management sciences and accounting at Southampton University, will now concentrate on preparing for the outdoor season, beginning with the British Universities Championships and the Hampshire Track & Field Championships in early May.

The Isle of Wight's Commonwealth heptathlete Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) came third in a long jump competition dominated by American sprint star Marion Jones (6.75).

Sotherton's third-round effort of 6.23 was short of her previous week's high in Leipzig when she added 18 centimetres to her indoor personal best with a 6.38 leap.

Sotherton's big goal is to double up in the long jump and heptathlon at this summer's Olympics in Athens.