TOBY SANDEMAN'S sensational performance on Saturday earned the Thames Valley Harrier a new and powerful friend - the chairman of the British Athletics League.

Sandeman's super-fast 10.48secs (100m) and 20.9s (200m) personal best into a headwind not only helped the Shepherd's Bush club into third place for the first Division Two meeting in Cardiff - it may yet get the 21-year-old invitation races at more prestigious meets.

Mike Heath handed over the £100 cheque to Sandeman for his deserved man-of-the-match award - and then wondered out loud what he could do for the onfire athlete.

"Mike was very impressed with Tony," said TVH head-ofcoaching Paul Oppé, "and it might be he'll drop a word in the right ears."

Even Usain Bolt would have been impressed with the way Sandeman shut down at the end of a victorious 4x100m.

In the same way the Olympic champion showboated the last few metres of his gold medal win in Beijing - Sandeman did the same, only he was wearing tracksuit bottoms as well.

But there were other heroes in sky-blue vests.

Nav Childs (14.80m) and Matt Morsia (13.88m) recorded the best and second-best jumps of the day to win both the 'A' and 'B' string triple jumps.

Veteran Steve Whyte got a first and two seconds in the hammer, discus and shot put, while Ali Mortimore got a second and two thirds in the same events.

Naz Dawit shaved a whopping three seconds off his PB to record 1:59.06 in the 800m, and Lloyd King (49.7/400m), Shane Christie (50.3/400m), and Louis Williams (1:58.13/800m) did the same in their events.

But if Sandeman walked away with the loot, Manuel da Silva earned his team's praise.

The 11 points the TVH stalwart earned shoring up the 400H, 110H, 5,000m and 1,500m was the difference between team finishing third and fourth.