CITY of Plymouth’s David King produced his second fastest legal 110m hurdles run of his career on Tuesday night to claim third place in a strong field at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland.

The day after his 28th birthday, Olympian King clocked 13.46 seconds in the final of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event to finish behind American Aaron Mallett and Poland’s Damian Czykier.

World Indoor finalist King did beat his Great Britain rival Andy Pozzi and his run in Finland will have been a big boost to him ahead of this month’s British Championships in Manchester.

King, who clocked 13.59 seconds in the heats on Tuesday evening, seems to like running at the Paavo Nurmi Games as that was where he set his PB of 13.37 seconds last year, which helped him book his place at the Tokyo Olympics.

His third place in Finland, followed on from finishing fifth in the 110m hurdles final at the Continental Tour event in Geneva, Switzerland, on Saturday. He ran 13.61 seconds in the heats and 13.62 in the final at that event.

King, who has a world top 20 ranking, will now be focused on trying to make sure he finishes in the top two at the British trials on June 25 to put himself in contention for selection for the major championships coming up this year.

Meanwhile, City of Plymouth coach Neal Edwards did become a British champion at the weekend.

Edwards won the M50 400m hurdles at the British Masters’ Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Derby with a 60.82 second run. It was his third run of the season under 61 seconds, with his season’s best standing at 60.48 seconds.