Athletics: Malcolm's '09 goal

Malcolm: Berlin goal

British sprinter Christian Malcolm believes his best days are ahead of him and says an injury-free year will see him in the form of his life.

It is a decade since he shot to prominence by winning the world junior 100 metres and 200m gold medals but his career has been punctuated by injury and illness despite appearing at three Olympic Games.

The highlight was arguably a fifth-place finish in the 200m final in Athens in 2004, but even that came after he suffered kidney failure during training camp.

However, after enlisting the help of Linford Christie as coach, the 29-year-old has recovered his best form, matching his Athens performance in Beijing earlier this year, and he hopes to use that as a springboard to success on the world stage.

Target attained

"I always felt that if I could stay injury free during the winter everything would be fine and that's what we managed to achieve," he said.

"We decided if I could run 20.2 seconds, or even better still 20.1sec, it would be good enough to reach the Olympic final and we attained the target.

"I was always positive about making the final and now we've found a way of modifying my training to prevent more serious injuries, I honestly believe I am on the way back.

"Yes, I may be 29 and getting older, but after three or four years when injuries have kept me sidelined, my body feels like it is just 24 or 25 years old."

With his past injury problems in mind, Malcolm is taking a cautious approach to 2009 with the focus on challenging for 200m gold at the World Championships in Berlin.

"I'll do a few indoor races to break up the winter but will not compete in the European Indoor Championships," said the Newport-based star.

Concentrating on 200m

"I will be going for warm-weather training but at the moment I am waiting to hear where and when the camps will be.

"At the World Championships I plan just competing over 200m as I do not want to over-complicate my plans by also running the 100m.

"However, as I usually do, I will run both 100m and 200m races at the trials."

"Now I'm back to full fitness everything is also geared to staying injury free and again producing the form of which I know I am capable of."