Hercules Wimbledon AC's teenage sprinter Max Mondelli excelled at the British Athletic Indoor Championships at Sheffield on Saturday despite suffering from a heavy head cold.

Mondelli, 18, a pupil at King's College School, Wimbledon, was the second youngest of the 35 competitors in the senior men's 60m, but was not overawed by the strength of the opposition.

He came up against British number one James Dasaolu in his first round heat - and while Dasaolu cruised to a comfortable win, Mondelli reached the semi-final round as he posted a lifetime best time of 6.85 seconds in taking fourth spot.

He was 15th of the 24 qualifiers so his prospects of making it through to the final did not look great.

His previous best of 6.85 was set when finishing fifth in the South of England championships at Lee Valley athletics centre last month.

In between his heat and semi-final, Mondelli covered his head in a large towel and inhaled a steamy vapour in a bid to ease the effects of his head cold, as well as doing much needed school homework.

His aim was to try and improve his lifetime best and, putting the towel and his homework to one side, he again finished fourth but his time of 6.88 was slightly slower than his heat time and he missed out on a place in the final by 0.14secs.

His first round effort ranks him in the top 10 amongst Britain's teenagers this year in eighth place.