DWAYNE Blake smashed his personal best to claim silver in the AAA Indoor U17 Championship in Birmingham.

The 15-year-old High-crest School student, competing in the 400m, charged through the heats, semis and final to grab a superb second spot with the third fastest time this year in his age-group.

He said: "I can't describe the feeling. It's just all emotion, pure joy.

"I just wanted to get past the first heat initially.

"I thought it would be really hard to get past the heats and then I realised I was running really fast and that gave me a boost."

The Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow AC athlete arrived in Birmingham on the Saturday with an indoor best of 53.04 seconds set only two weeks earlier.

In the heats he smashed this time reducing it to 51.95secs while winning a tactically strong race from the front.

Blake, from Princes Risborough, said: "Last year, I used to struggle towards the end of the race but I wanted to see if I could go out fast and then try and hang on."

The semi-final saw Blake up against Welsh champion Tom Miller but Blake dug deep to finish second in another personal best of 50.42secs.

And another personal best was set in the final when Blake clashed with a Scottish athlete but managed to come away with a silver in a time of 50.34secs.

Blake paid tribute to coach Alan Hewson afterwards.

He said: "My coach gave me the momentum to go all the way and helped me stay focussed.

"He told me to concentrate and not worry about anyone else."

Blake added: "There's a lot of good people at my club. They help me get better and I just want to be like them."

Also in action at Birmingham was Wycombe High pupil Becky Richards, from Downley, who equalled her PB in the U15 60m, while Great Missenden's Daniel James, who attends The Misborne School, missed qualifying through the rounds by just three hundredths of a second.