JAMIE BAULCH has revealed how personal tragedy inspired him to land a World Indoor Championships individual bronze medal in Birmingham yesterday.

And an hour-and-a-half after landing that third place, Baulch claimed a second bronze as part of the British 4x400 metres relay team.

The Marshfield-based star was all set to return home last week after hearing that his great friend, 32-year-old Delton Horner, had died in a car crash on Tuesday.

But, rather than letting the tragedy ruin his championships, 29-year-old Baulch used it to help him into third in the individual event as he dead-heated with Irishman Paul McKee, both recording times of 45.99 seconds.

American Tyree Washington won the gold and fellow Brit Daniel Caines was second.

Baulch said: "I had a personal friend who died in a car crash on Tuesday and I was thinking about going home. "I was really running for him and I am pleased that I got a medal.

"I knew Daniel would go for it because all the pressure was on him. Tyree is a good runner and that was really good fun. This means a lot for me today. I could feel the Irish guy breathing down my neck dipping on the line and I am glad I just got there."

And, after a personal spat with Caines over the last few weeks when the 23-year-old Midlander claimed the Welshman was "past it" as a force in the event, the feud was laid to rest by the silver medalist.

Caines, once a student at Swansea University, said: "Getting his third medal at three world indoor championships, he is a legend."

The Birchfield Harrier, defending the title he won two years ago in Lisbon, ran a personal best of 45.43sec but, coming off the last bend, he failed in his desperate attempt to edge ahead of Washington.

And three minutes after the race finished, the timekeeping system was unable to separate Baulch and McKee for third.

Controversy followed as, ten minutes after the finish of the race, re-examination of the photo-finish saw the bronze medal awarded to Baulch with McKee relegated to fourth position.

But, yet again, there was a change of mind and the dead-heat was reinstated.

After having a bit of a warm-down and a two-hour rest, Baulch was back on track with Caines, Wales' Tim Benjamin and Cori Henry to grab yet more glory.

The United States and Jamaica battled for the top two spots in the 4x400m relay, with the Americans winning by just 12 one-hundredths of a second.

And there was no doubt about Baulch's second bronze of the day as he and his fellow team members came home third ahead of Poland in a time of 3:06.12 minutes.