Meadows's cautious approach

Meadows won bronze in the 800m at the World Championships in Berlin last August and looks a good bet to at least equal that achievement at the indoor equivalent in Doha next month.

The Wigan athlete broke Kelly Holmes's seven-year-old British record on Saturday with a time of 1min 59.11secs at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, taking 0.10secs off the mark set by double Olympic champion Holmes in Belgium in 2003.

The 28-year-old said: "There are still three weeks till Doha. I'm sure people have more training to do but so have I.

"It's a whole new mindset for me. I'm running and looking at the screen and see I have a lead and still feel I have got a little bit in me. It's a great position to be in and I just want to wrap myself up in cotton wool now for the next three weeks and make sure I get to Doha in great shape."

The Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for Doha will be announced tomorrow.

Athletes who won their events at the trials in Sheffield and had the qualifying standard are guaranteed one of the two places available in each event.

Most of the selectors' decisions appear straightforward, with the likes of world champions Jessica Ennis of Sheffield and Phillips Idowu certain of their places in the team despite missing the trials.

Ennis's participation remains in some doubt, however, after she missed the trials and Saturday's event in Birmingham with an injury to the same foot which ruled her out of the Beijing Olympics.

Scotland's Nick Smith gave the selectors something to think about as he set a new national record of 6.60secs in the 60m.

Richard Buck (City of York) ran a season's best in the 400m on Saturday. Buck was the only British athlete in the field and at the break was somewhat off the pace as Jamaica's Ricardo Chambers led the pack through 200m.

Ireland's David Gillick then took up the running and stormed to an impressive victory in 45.52, one of the fastest indoor times in the world this year.

Buck, however, used his strength well and over the last 50m made his way through the pack to third place in 46.52 – a significant season's best for the UK champion.

"It was a good race," he said. "It was a season's best for me but it didn't really go to plan. But the way David ran it couldn't go to plan at all."

Wakefield's Zara Hohn was sixth in the 60m hurdles in 8.36.