COLCHESTER athlete Charlie Dobson went sixth on the British all-time list with a blistering run in his individual season opener at the Meeting Citta di Savona, in Italy.

Dobson, 24, won the men's 400 metres in a time of 44.46 seconds, beating his own personal best (PB) by more than half a second as he coasted to victory.

It lifted the Colchester Harriers runner from number 22 to number six on the UK all-time rankings and he is now in the running to challenge for gold at next month's European Championships, in Rome.

 

Elsewhere at the meet, Olympic and world silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson set a new 400m PB.

The 22-year-old claimed 800m silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, collecting the same medal in back-to-back global championships in the same event in 2022 and 2023.

In Italy she clocked a 51.61 running half that distance, 72 days out from the opening day of this summer's Olympics in Paris.

The result was good enough for a second-place finish in Savona behind Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley, who crossed the finish line in 51.43.

It was the first race of the Olympic year for Hodgkinson, who broke Kelly Holmes' British 800m record in Tokyo which had stood since 1995.