Commonwealth bronze medallist Martin Brockman started his quest for Olympic selection with a promising set of personal bests competing as a guest in the New South Wales Decathlon Championships at Blackwood.

The Medway & Maidstone athlete (pictured)has just completed the first month of a three month training trip to Australia. Warm conditions and a favourable wind ensured a good start to the event with a big improvement in the 100m to 11.18sec (down from 11.30).

A consistent series in the long jump (7.26) compared well to his best (7.29) set in the Delhi Commonwealth Games. The shot (14.29) saw a 79cm gain and an average high jump (2.04m) resulted in fresh legs for the 400m, which contributed to a half second improvement (49.47).

Even travelling half way round the world cannot eliminate variations in the weather and day two saw a stormy start. Brockman had a steady 110 metres hurdle race (15.56) and two foul throws in a slippery discus circle so the safe first round throw (38.37) counted.

With the airlines not taking poles the vault was always going to be challenging. Using an old cut off pole that he found in a shed at his training base and a rudimentary technique a 3.80 metre clearance entertained the enthusiastic local crowd.

The 10 events were finished in style with an improvement of 3.5 metres in the javelin (57.69) and a steady 1500m (4.38.36) for overall victory ahead of the local competition with a final score of 7,493 points.

Brockman has another competition scheduled for Melbourne at the end of February.

With a more suitable pole he will be looking to improve his current best of 7,712 points before returning to England and attempting to qualify for his first Olympic Games. The targets for selection for London 2012 are the "B" standard of 7,950 and the automatic "A" standard of 8,200 points.