Britain's Golden girl

Lewis adds the Olympic gold to her list of titles

Denise Lewis hardly had the ideal preparation for the Olympics after she underwent a calf operation following her silver medal at the Seville World Championships last year.

Her preparations were also hindered by the recurrence of a shoulder injury but her performance in Talance, France at the end of July showed that Denise was still in good form.

There she added 95 points to her own British and Commonwealth heptathlon record, with personal bests in the 100m hurdles, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m.

Even during the two days of competition in Sydeny Lewis competed with strapping around her ankle to protect an Achilles injury - an injury which at one point looked like it might keep her out of the final 800m of the Sydney event.

But nothing could get in the way of her achieving her ultimate aim of winning Olympic Gold.

The 28-year-old Birchfield Harrier has of course been successful on the international stage before, winning the gold at the 1998 European Championships and at both the 1994 and 1998 Commonwealth Games.

She also finished as the runner-up at the World Championships in 1997 and 1999, while she picked up a bronze at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Denise was awarded the MBE in the 1999 New Year Honours list.