by Alex Hoad

Martin Brockman is planning to celebrate his surprise Commonwealth Games medal by savouring his first beer in a year when he returns home this weekend.

The 22-year-old from Maidstone produced the performance of a lifetime to secure bronze in the decathlon in Delhi last Friday – and immediately turned his attention to qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics.

He set six personal bests in the 10 events – including all five on the first day of competition – to finish with 7,712 points, another lifetime best, behind gold medallist Jamie Adjetey-Nelson of Canada and silver medallist Brent Newdick of New Zealand.

Brockman said: "I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing my friends and family. I must have had 300 messages on facebook saying well done.

"I’m looking forward to having my first pint in a year this weekend and spending some time with my girlfriend."

The Medway & Maidstone AC member was happy to have won a place on the team so to come back with a bronze medal certainly exceeeded his own expectations.

"I only just scraped into the team after four years of hard work so to be coming away with a medal is unbelievable," he admitted.

Brockman acknowledged that the pressure of the major competition – his first outside the UK – had inspired him to perform and he wants to use is as a springboard to the Olympics in 2012.

He said: "My score was only 18 points off the Olympic qualifcation mark so this is a big step forward for me. I need to improve my second day now, there is definitely stuff there for me to work on."