Nick Buckfield broke the British indoor pole vault record of 5.62m at Bedford to strengthen his claims for a place in the British team for the Commonwealth Games in July.

The Crawley athlete cleared the height at his second attempt and failed with three attempts at his British outdoor record of 5.80m.

He saw off all the opposition before setting the height at 5.30m which he cleared at the third attempt. He needed two attempts to get over at 5.50m.

Buckfield broke the outdoor record in 1998 before being hit by injury problems.

His form at Bedford showed he is on the way back.

Clubmate Leigh Walker finished sixth with 4.60m and Brighton and Hove's David Ingram cleared 3.90m for tenth place after two years out.

Niobe Menendez (Steyning) is also in the right form to gain a Games place.

Menedez won the Jeff Slater/Pat Bryce 10,000m walk in 49min.26sec at Broadbridge Heath.

The Steyning athlete, who wants to seal a spot in the 20km in Manchester, dominated in driving rain and high winds that meant there was no chance of a fast time.

She pushed from the start of the 25-lap race against opposition including a group of veteran men walkers who were unable to keep pace when she reeled off several laps at a sub two-minute pace.

It was not until she had almost reached halfway that she slipped outside two minutes per a lap.

Her consistency of pace was remarkable as the conditions sapped her strength but she pressed on with determination. Over the second half of the race her slowest lap time was 2min.1sec and the fastest 1min.58sec in a fine example of judging the pace.

Menendez eventually lapped all of the opposition.

She said: "I had planned to attack my best ever time, but when I saw the conditions I knew I would be lucky to get within a couple of minutes.

"I thought I might scrape inside 50 minutes but that would be pushing it.

"I'm pretty pleased with the time, but not with the conditions. I really wanted to walk fast but the wind was so strong and the track had so many puddles that it was impossible to get a good speed going and keep up the pace.

"I am determined to make the England team and there will be other opportunities, I hope, to get into a fast race."

Second across the line was Richard Emsley who won the men's race with 51min.50sec.

Emsley had only returned to racing last September when he clocked 59min at the Sussex 10,000m Championships in good conditions.

He said: "I'm pretty pleased to chop seven minutes off my time and given good conditions today I feel I am in the form that would have seen me getting close to 50 minutes."