AIR Forces athletics secretary Jason Davenhill returned to the Surrey Schools Championships to see his senior 400 metres hurdles record fight another day.

In 1988, he set the senior age-group best of 54.20 seconds, a mark that would still put him in the top 10 nationally today.

The former Trinity schoolboy's record could have been under threat had Ben Parkin, also of Trinity, turned up, but the silver medallist at English Schools last summer opted, like many senior athletes, for the Southern Counties U20 event at Crystal Palace.

Instead, he got to see a good race between Jacob Paul and Lolo Oluwole Ojo, both of Wilson's School, in the U17 intermediate race.

Currently the two best hurdlers at their age-group in the country, Paul, running 55.50 seconds, defeated his Epsom & Ewell Harriers team-mate, who ran 56.54.

Paul, said: "My aim for the season was just to get to the English Schools final, now I'm looking hopefully to go onto the home internationals."

A multi-eventer, the Croydon Harriers athlete intends on doing as many different events until he is an U20 and then "making a decision" about what to pursue.

But he has already switched to one of the best sprint groups possible under Marina Armstrong at Epsom. "I prefer the atmosphere there and it helps to train with the people I'm racing with," he said, adding that Epsom is also easier to reach from his home in Banstead.

Davenhill, who now lives in Andover, was surprised his record had stood so long. "When I broke it, it had stood for 19 years and now I've had it for 22 years," said Davenhill, a squadron leader who has seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now the championship secretary for the Air Force, the father of two grew up in Old Coulsdon and was a Croydon Harrier, won the southern counties title and was second at English Schools before coming third in the U20s UK championships.

Diagnosed with arthritis at 23, he found his competition days restricted but ran the London Marathon in 2004 and has brought his Chinook back to Trinity to show pupils.

A week after that Surrey record, he ran a rare 800 metres. "I only did it to break Mike Fleet's record," joked Davenhill.

He was duly congratulated by the Commonwealth Games runner and Croydon Harriers stalwart, in a letter - full of tongue-in-cheek backhanded compliments outlining how Fleet had endured worse tracks and heavier clothing – which Davenhill kept in a scrapbook, brought to Kingsmeadow for the occasion.

Historians, and Davenhill, will no doubt remember that he ran 53.48 in May 1988 at Crystal Palace, a time that is still fourth on the club's all-time list.