LAWRENCE Clarke declared himself well pleased with second place in the 60m hurdles at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on Saturday, writes STUART WEIR.

The Oxfordshire athlete, who lives at Christmas Common, near Watlington, ran 7.62secs to take the runners-up spot behind American Kevin Craddock (7.58).

But there was woe for Oxford City’s Hannah England, who did not finish the women’s mile race after becoming well adrift from the field.

For Clarke, however, who won the British Indoor Championships a week previously, it was another fine weekend.

“My aim this season has been consistency, so to run 7.62 in the heats and final today following three 7.63s in Dusseldorf and Karlsruhe is pleasing,” he said.

Latest Sport news

“In the final the guy next to me (Jarret Eaton) just pulled away at hurdles 2 and 3.

“Normally that sort of race would have blown my mind, but I managed to go past him at hurdle five.

“Kevin Craddock’s winning time was below my pb, so I am really pleased to come second.”

Clarke was delighted to beat his hero, 2012 Olympic champion and 110m hurdles world record holder, Aries Merritt, twice in one afternoon.

“I asked to have the lane next to Merritt in the heat and that was my final,” he said.

“It was great to beat him. The last time we raced, he ran the world record and I was ten metres behind!”

Clarke will race in Metz on Wednesday, before heading for the European Indoor Championships in Prague on March 6-8.

The unluckiest man in the 60m event was Radley’s Ramone Smith, who ran a second personal best in a month to take fourth in his heat.

A time of 6.68 saw him tie with American Trell Kimmons as the fastest loser.

The pair could not be split, even down to thousandths of a second, but Kimmons got the place in the final on the toss of a coin.

Corporal Smith of the Royal Logistics Corps – known as “Britain’s fastest soldier” – was upbeat about his day. “I feel good about that race,” he said.“It seems that every week I am running a pb which is good.”

Smith, who only got his invitation to run three days before the event after finishing sixth in the UK Championship last week, was not fazed by the crowds.

“I just concentrated on keeping my nerve and doing what I had to do," he said.

England, who has been struggling with illness after a month training in Kenya, was always off the pace in the women’s mile.

She lost contact with the rest of the field and dropped out with a lap to go.

The highlight of the meet was a world record by Mo Farah in the two-mile race.

Farah’s time of 8mins 3.40secs was almost a second faster than Kenenisa Bekele’s mark set back in 2008.

Olympic champion Greg Rutherford was another of the seven British winners, when he took the men’s long jump with his final leap of 8.17m.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a British indoor record of 6.93m in the long jump.