Athletics: Injury-free Davies is flying again.

Byline: By Leon Hickman

THE LATEST repairs to Chris Davies' lower legs appear to be working, proof offered by a time of 16 mins 42 secs at the national six-stage road relays. The knowledge alone brought rivals to attention in surprise.

Yes, the Flying Postman had taken to the air again in Sutton Park where he already holds a handful of records.

"If they put on the Olympics here, he'd win gold," was the verdict of Birchfield Harriers' envious team manager Steve Edmunds.

Davies completed the 5.8km course 17 secs faster than multiple cross country champion Frank Tickner and 21 secs ahead of a clutch of high-class long-distance runners, including Tipton Harrier Phil Nicholls and Birchfield's Jean Ndayisenga.

Shortly to move into a new house with Amanda Dalkins, who had helped Birchfield to 16th place in the women's four-stage race, Davies is a renewed man after recovering from stress fractures to both shins, various treatments to his feet and calves, as well as the discovery that his left leg is a centimetre shorter than his right.

But he has a secret. Amanda also happens to be a masseuse and is regularly on hand to knead away those legendary pains in the legs.

Delighted to have put a poor 10km run at Chichester behind him, the 30-year-old said: "Miracle, I am free from injury. I thought of giving it up a couple of times in the past two years but I've been doing good sessions for six weeks.

"Amanda helps and that's a financial thing as well because regular massages are costly.

"Sutton Park has always been great for me and today's run was brilliant, I wouldn't have believed I could have got so close to 16.25, my best here."

Tipton, at sixth, were the best of the West Midland teams, but the region were well represented in the winning team, Belgrave Harriers, by Mark Miles, and in runners-up Leeds, by James Walsh, once a Rowheath member whose late father was a professor at Birmingham University.

Miles, a former Kings Norton School pupil who lives in Bromsgrove, ran a decisive fifth leg for his club, transforming a two-second deficit into a 27-second lead by holding his nerve before a searing last half.

There was one run fit to compare with Davies'. It came from 18-year-old Steph Twell, who was timed at 13.41 for the 4.3km leg in the women's race.

This was by 16 secs the fastest of the day but, more, it was 48 secs quicker than her rival from Charnwood, Tara Kryzwicki, who had led by seven seconds, and won the title for Aldershot. They finished in 57.15 mins while Belgrave's time was 1 hour 44.3.