A REFRESHED Tom Gale is hoping that he can make a big impact at the Spar British Indoor Championships in Birmingham this weekend.

The Trowbridge junior international will be treading the domestic boards for the first time this year having just returned from a mini indoor tour in Europe.

Three competitions in just over a week saw the 19-year-old Team Bath AC athlete set an indoor personal best of 2.20m at the Hustopec meeting in the Czech Republic plus a further 2.15m in Trinec – also the championship record – and then 2.12m in Cologne, Germany.

“I enjoyed the competitions and it was nice to jump an indoor personal best but I was a little bit disappointed with the heights I cleared,” said Gale.

“But my coach said I have to be realistic and I was quite tired after a heavy period of training from the recent training camp in Tenerife.

“Hopefully I will be a lot fresher for the British Championships and will be looking to show better form there.”

Gale will head to Birmingham fourth in the UK Rankings but he has high expectations of at least getting onto the podium.

“It takes me a bit longer to hit my peak as I am more of an elastic jumper than a strength jumper so the mini tour was a good way to get the rust out of the system,” added Gale.

“This weekend should be a really good competition and while I haven’t jumped in Birmingham for a long while hopefully it will go well for me.”