Macclesfield sprinter Libby Clegg has fired a warning shot to her rivals ahead of the IPC World Championships – revealing she is in better shape than when she picked up 2008 Paralympic silver.
The 20-year-old visually impaired runner was in just her second year of senior competition when she ran 12.51seconds for 100m silver at the Beijing Paralympics.
But Clegg did not slow down after her breakthrough – winning and retaining her 100m gold at the Paralympic World Cup in 2009 and 2010.
And as she prepares for an assault on the competition in New Zealand this month Clegg is keen to send a clear message that it will be gold around her neck – and not silver – come London 2012.
"I do feel like the sport has moved on quite a lot since Beijing and you have to keep improving or you will be left behind," said Clegg – who has been fine-tuning her preparations for the championships at a warm-weather Aviva-funded preparation camp in Auckland.
"It is harder now to get international wins and medals and even qualification standards, but that is good for the sport.
"I still get really excited coming up to a World Championship and I have been training since Beijing to come and do this and it is quite a big deal for me.
"I am older now and more mature than I was in Beijing and I think that will help me looking ahead to London. Being selected in the Aviva GB and NI is a good stepping stone to achieving my dream of winning Paralympic gold.
"All of this gives me confidence and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to win a medal and I will have that confidence at the World Championships."
But it isn’t just Clegg’s age that has changed since China as a change of surroundings and a new guide has freshened up her training regime.
And with her lowest 100m position being a silver in Watford back in August, Clegg insists she is in high spirits that she is on the right road towards a dream gold at the London Paralympics.
"I have changed a few things as I now live and train in Loughborough and I’ve gone from running with Lincoln Asquith to running with Mikhail Huggins," she added.
"I was running with an older runner and I had to decide whether or not to run with a younger runner because I wanted to make the change before London so that everything was settled then.
"I want to do well at the World Championships and it is a big event but if I was going to make a change I wanted to do it for this event and not for London.
"If I can make the change now though and still do well then that will give me a lot of confidence for the future."
Aviva has been supporting British athletes since 1999. To find out more about Aviva’s athletics sponsorship, go to www.aviva.co.uk/athletics
