NEWPORT HARRIER James Nasrat paid tribute to Christian Malcolm and his coach, Jock Anderson, after winning the Welsh 400m and 800m titles at Cwmbran on the weekend.

While Malcolm was on Great Britain duty in the 200m and 4x100m in Florence, Nasrat was claiming the prize scalps of Welsh international Matt Shone and British international James Thie, of Cardiff, on his way to victory in one minute, 49.38 seconds in the 800m.

Coached by Tony Lewis, the 20-year-old worked closely with Malcolm and Anderson in the build-up to this summer season, including a warm-weather training spell in Melbourne, and reaped the benefits at the Welsh Championships.

He said: "I went to Australia with Christian. I did my own training, but we did some of his longer work and my shorter work together, and it has helped my speed so much.

"Christian and his coach, Jock, have been great and helped me so much with my technique and working on my speed. It's really helped and made a difference."

Nasrat sprang his surprise win ahead of Shone, who ran for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester last summer, and Thie, who made a big impact on the boards earlier this year.

Nasrat said: "Before the race I was a bit nervous as I knew there were some really good-quality athletes in the field. I was really pleased with the time - it's the second fastest I have run, although I wasn't really aiming for a time, I was just going for the win. The time was a bonus."

Nasrat then went on to win the 400m yesterday in 48.52 seconds.

He said: "I was thinking of doing the 800m and the 1,500m, but it's the AAAs under-23s next weekend, and it would be too much. So I thought I would have a go at the 400m to work on my speed.

"I'm aiming to go to the European Under-23 Championships in Poland this summer, so we'll see how that goes. I need to get one minute, 48 seconds for that, and I have run one minute, 48.55 seconds already this year, so hopefully things will come together."

Newport's Rozelle Cavaciuti bagged a hat trick of Welsh titles, winning the under-20s' 100m in 12.28 seconds, the 200m in 25.03 seconds and the 400m in 58.48 seconds.

Cwmbran's Andrew Watkins, tipped to follow in the footsteps of Malcolm, recorded wins in the under-17 100m and 200m.

Lara Richards won the long jump in 5.56m, while Sonia Lawrence set a new championship best height of 4.02m in the pole vault. Cardiff's Rhys Williams kept his preparations for the European Junior Championships on track with a championship best in the 400m hurdles of 52.54 seconds.