Tom Merson's short but sweet track season continued as he claimed silver in the 5,000m at the Inter-Counties Track & Field Championships in Bedford at the weekend.
Representing Devon, the Exmouth runner ran a 60-second last lap to record a time of 14mins 44.90secs and go one better than last year when he ran a personal best of 14.39.71.
Merson pushed eventual winner Ross Skelton of Sussex all the way on that final circuit but could not find a way past, and was denied the gold medal by just 0.64secs.
"I just missed the title by a few tenths of a second which is frustrating, but I think that last lap was a personal best for 400 metres," said Merson.
"Ross got the jump on me at the bell as I was watching another guy who was in the lead at that point. I just couldn't get by him on that last lap, but it is another national medal for the second year running and I am chuffed to bits."
Merson's silver came after his victory in the Exeter 10k road race last week with a time of 31.12, while he also won the 5,000m at the South West Championships and came third in the 1,500m.
In total, he has run in just four track meetings this summer, including a couple at the start of the summer in May, when he won the 1,500m and 3,000m at the Devon Championships.
"I was concentrating on the road and the fell running in between, so it is good to come back and run so well on the track," said Merson.
"I have a couple of meetings left with the British Milers' Club 10,000m Festival in Manchester on September 6 and the Devon 10,000m Championships at the Exeter Arena just before that."
Also in action for the small Devon squad that made the tip to Bedford was Exeter Harriers' Rebecca Chapman and the 21-year-old was rewarded with an impressive victory in the long jump.
Indeed, Chapman's winning leap of 6.00m is her second best jump outdoors behind her personal best of 6.17m set last month.
Karla Drew is a former clubmate of Chapman who is now competing for Yorkshire after moving to Sheffield to study and train alongside Olympic champion Jessica Ennis. The 25-year-old won the 100m hurdles in a wind-assisted time of 13.60secs.
