FORMER Swindon Harrier Toby Ulm became the third-fastest British male ever in the 500m at a recent meet in New York.

Ulm, pictured left, who attends Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, was competing in the Big East Conference Championships at The New Balance Track & Field Center when he set the landmark.

The ex-Marlborough resident clocked a time of 1:01.62 to cross the line 18 hundredths of a second behind winner Aaron Younger.

David Jenkins and Colin Campbell are the only British athletes faster than Ulm over the distance.

While the 500m is rarely contested, Ulm can hardly fail to be pleased with a time which is the quickest ever by an under 23 and the fastest ever indoors.

Meanwhile, at the same New York event, another former Wiltshire resident was also competing.

Yasmin Smith, 20, who used to attend Ridgeway School but now studies at the University of South Florida, was competing in the one-mile race.

She finished 11th in the preliminary event in 4:53.90, just making it into the final. And in the showpiece race she ran 5:30.06 to finish 10th overall.

Elsewhere, Swindon Harrier Keeleigh Chapman followed up her recent success at the Team Bath Open with a superb day of sprinting at the National Indoor Championships in Birmingham. The 13-year-old set three personal bests in a day in the 60m hurdles and narrowly missed out on making the podium in the final.

Chapman ran 9.44 in her heat and took another seven hundredths off in the semis, finishing second in 9.37.

With little to lose in the final, Chapman powered to yet another personal best, this time 9.25.

And she could count herself unfortunate not to make the top three, as the silver and bronze medal winners both clocked 9.24.