STEVE DAVIES is having a January beyond his wildest dreams despite no cherry of a Common-wealth Games place being on it.

Only three weeks ago, the Newport Harrier was, astonishingly, the leading 1500 metre runner in the WORLD!

Admittedly, there were only two other athletes who had run by then, the first week of 2006, but, by posting an early time, Davies stood as number one on the planet on the ranking list.

And his time was, of course, the best this year in the UK ranking list, although he is on the slippery slope down the pile of athletes now that the build-up to Melbourne's Commonwealth Games gets into swing.

Nevertheless, if Davies keeps his early year charge intact, he is sure to put himself among the contenders for a podium place next month's national AAA Indoor Championships in Sheffield.

Davies beat his personal best by no less than six seconds on January 15 when recording three minutes 43.3 seconds for the 1500 metres at UWIC's National Indoor Athletics Centre in Cardiff when running in a national Grand Prix series.

That was just a third of a second outside the IAAF's entry standard for this year's World Indoor Championships!

Now, if he wants anything else to put on his cv, which is building up into something special, Davies can show his versatility by saying he can also run quick over the 800 metres.

He beat the Principality's indoor record holder Jimmy Watkins, of Cardiff, by 0.14 of a second at the Welsh AAA Indoor Championships at UWIC on Saturday in returning a time of one minute 49.50sec.

Watkins took nothing away from Davies' outstanding effort in winning the race and said later: "He ran well but I don't know what happened to me. I just didn't feel right. I had a good week's training and the first thing I did when the gun went off was I wobbled a bit.

"I was in that kind of mindset for the whole of the race. My stride length wasn't as long as it usually is so it just didn't feel smooth. I got back home and felt a bit despondent."

Gwent, in fact, had a terrific weekend in all age groups and disciplines of the championships, none more so than in the one-lap, 200m events yesterday.

For both gold medals in the senior events went to Gwent athletes. Cwmbran's Simon Thompson beat a very competitive field to take first place in the men's final, clocking a time of 23.47sec ahead of Wrexham's Nik Mesney who was second in 23.82sec.

And Newport Harrier Rozelle Cavacuiti stormed across the line to take the women's one-lap sprint crown in 25.02sec. Such was her dominance in the race that she finished over half a second ahead of runner-up Kathryn Williams, of Cardiff.

Also it seems the influence of training with Gwent star Christian Malcolm is rubbing off on highly-thought of Adebowale Ademuyewo as the Sale Harrier blasted past the rest of the field in the blue ribbon men's 60m sprint to clinch gold in a time of 6.89sec.

And Abertillery's Daniel Gurmin managed to get himself on the podium when finishing third in the senior men's 3000m behind Cardiff winner Simon Lewis.

A number of other Gwent athletes also took home top honours in their age groups. Cwmbran's Nathan Hardee won the men's Under-17 3000m title in 9min.25.52sec and was streets ahead of second placed Geraint Mansfield of Carmarthen.

Newport's Daniel McKenzie stormed to victory in the Under-15 boys 1500m in a time of 4min.15.76sec, while Hardee's Cwmbran colleague Daniel Jenkins won gold by claiming first place in the Under-17 men's 60m hurdles.