Gateshead, the Gold Coast and golf is just the Olympic ticket

AS YOU read this, I'll just be settling in to Britain's Olympic holding camp on the Gold Coast and I know that as soon as I touch down on Australian soil, I'll start to get switched on to the job ahead. Up to now, I've been so laid back, so confident to a fault, that it has been as if the Games don't exist.

Maybe that accounts for the fact that, in my last race before a major championship, I can never seem to run well.

In Gateshead on Monday, it was the same old story. I was disappointed to finish third, yet I'm comforted that this always seems to be the pattern with me going back to my first Olympics in Seoul 12 years ago.

That year, I clocked a dismal 13.60secs at Crystal Palace and finished fourth before going out to Seoul and winning a silver at the age of 21. Last year, I finished fourth in London too, but went to Seville, ran about a metre and a half quicker and won a world championship gold. I don't know why this should be, but I'm not complaining. Maybe I just need the buzz of championship racing.

Just being in Australia should quickly concentrate the mind. This is my fourth Games and I know there is a natural high from just being part of the Olympics.

I've been telling the debutants in the team to savour the experience, because knowing Sydney as well as I do - having trained there regularly for the past seven years - it is such a vibrant, fun city that it is destined to stage one of the great Olympics.

I know the weather there in the spring can be a bit dodgy, so I'm much happier getting on with technical preparations in the warmth of the Gold Coast. What is going to be particularly enjoyable for me this time, is that in the camp I'm not just going to know the track and field team, but I will also be with pals from other sports who I train and work alongside at Bath University.

Among them are triathletes Simon Lessing and Andrew Johns, and though both their names and their sport may be a pretty unknown quantity to many people, you can be sure that won't be the case after the first weekend of the Games as they are the guys everyone will be looking towards to give Britain a magical start.

I know from past experience how infectious a successful opening to the Games can be. It gets the nation behind the team, makes everyone feel 'If they've done it, we can do it too'. Simon and Andrew have a great chance in what will be the first medal event and those of us at the camp will all be watching them on TV hoping they can deliver.

And I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did, having seen them all the time in action at Bath. They are both remarkable athletes, at the top of an incredibly tough sport where the training is even tougher.

I can't even begin to imagine having to prepare for an event which involves a 1,500m swim, a 40km bike ride, topped by a 10,000m road run. It's painful just thinking about it.

Simon is the master of his event - the one they all have to beat - yet when you meet such a laid back, cool customer downing his pasta in the Bath canteen, you can't picture him like some superman.

Then, when you see him switch to being an amazingly focused trainer out there and watch just how feverishly he works, you realise why he is one of our very best hopes in Sydney.

I share a big, old Georgian house in Bath with swimmer Mark Foster, who, like me, is striving to win the one title which has so far eluded him in his brilliant sprint career.

We hardly see each other as he spends most of his time training in Hamburg, so ironically, I'll probably see more of him on the Gold Coast where he's already warned me to bring my clubs because there's plenty of golfing to be done between training sessions. Mind you, there will be plenty of celebrations back at the house when we return if we achieve what we're after.

Two of the men out to stop me seem to be having a bad time. Reigning champion Allen Johnson and Cuban Anier Garcia, who I beat to the world title last year, have picked up injuries.

It's bad luck for them, but then I've had more than my fair share this summer of injury misfortune. I know one thing, though.

If you're going to have a problem, better that it be at the start of the season than now.

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