WILL Crisp moved to the top of the South West U20 Men’s Rankings with a sparkling personal best at the weekend, writes KEVIN FAHEY.

The 18-year-old Swindon Harrier was in Manchester for the British Milers’ Club Grand Prix meeting at the SportCity Stadium and lining up in the D race finished fourth in a time of one minute 51.54 seconds.

That sliced 1.66secs off the indoor best he clocked in February and was more than two seconds quicker than he has run outdoors.

“I am chipping away at it and getting closer and closer to my target of 1.50 which is one of my big aims for the summer,” said Crisp.

“I could have probably worked a little harder down the home straight and committed myself more to getting the win. I feel I am at least a second or so quicker at the moment but I have to keep working hard.

“Overall though I am happy with another PB.”

Pleased with his time Crisp was also more than relieved to catch the last train home and avoid getting stranded in Manchester overnight.

“My race was at 6.40pm and the last train back to Swindon was at 7.25pm so I literally just had to time to grab my kit and then kept running from the stadium back to Piccadilly Station just over a mile away,” added Crisp.

“I think that was the hardest I ran all day.”

With an 800m PB under his belt Crisp will now turn his attention to the 1500m and has entered the BMC Academy PB Classic meeting in Milton Keynes this weekend.

“It would be nice to take a big chunk off my PB, like around 12 seconds,” added Crisp.

“My current best is 4.12.7 which I ran two years ago so I will be looking to beat that.”

Taking his 800m form a guide then Crisp should be more than capable of going under four minutes which would then lift him into the top six in the South West and round-off a good week’s work.