Hansen set for defence

By Tom Fordyce

Hansen won world indoor gold last year - but at a price

Britain's Ashia Hansen will defend her world indoor title in March despite not having competed in 10 months.

Hansen missed the 2003 outdoor season after injuring her heel while taking gold in Birmingham last March.

After an uninterrupted winter's training, she insists she is injury free and in the sort of shape to win her third world indoor title.

"It will be straight into the deep end, but I am a lot fitter than I was last year," she said.

"I had to stop running for three weeks before the world indoor. This time it is all going really well.

"My sprinting is fine and my jumping is fine. I have already done more jumping sessions in January than I had up to March last year."

Hansen, one of Britain's brightest hopes for gold in Athens, said she is just glad to be competing after the injuries of last summer.

"I managed to scrape through the world indoors but by last July I was in so much pain that I just thought 'enough is enough'.

The world indoor is a stepping stone and a chance to find out where I am Ashia Hansen

"I had a hole in my right Achilles tendon but I have been injured every year since 1996. You just have to deal with it.

"I knew that this year was much more important and that kept me going."

Hansen has said in the past that she would limit her indoor season to safeguard her fitness, but insists that defending her world indoor title in Budapest will not jeopardise her Olympic hopes.

"If you go back to 2000 I decided then not to do the indoor season and yet I still managed to get injured," she said.

"We always have a major games in the summer and I always compete indoors, so I do not see why I should change now.

"The world indoor is a stepping stone and a chance to find out where I am.

"If it all goes well we can move on. If not I can make the choise necessary for the summer."

Hansen has yet to decided whether to compete in the indoor AAAs in Sheffield on 7-8 February.

But she will definitely be jumping in front of her home crowd at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 20 February.

Tickets for the Norwich Union Grand Prix are available via 0870 402 8000 or www.ukathletics.net