Hannah England is hoping to get back to the future in Moscow next month as she seeks to bounce back from her Olympic Games disappointment.
The Birmingham athlete enjoyed a global breakthrough when she won a surprise silver medal at the 2011 World Championships in Korea.
But after picking up an injury in the build-up to London 2012, when she was spiked in a race in The Netherlands, the Oxford-born middle-distance star failed to make an impact in her home games and slumped in the semi-finals.
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The injury also compromised her preparations and kept her out of the 海角视频 Championships and Olympic trials, making 2012 a year to forget.
However, two years on from her unexpected Daegu triumph, England is back to full fitness and claims she feels in even better condition than when she brought 1500m silver back to Brum.
“I am in pretty similar shape to 2011,” England says. “I was injured in 2011 and haven’t had that injury this year so it’s a bit less complicated than that year and last year.
“Everything is going really well at the minute, I am definitely on for this weekend, it’s looking good to hopefully get on that World Championship team.”
That process starts at the Alexander Stadium on Saturday, when she goes in the heats – and will hopefully culminate in Sunday’s final, which is the penultimate race of the trials.
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The 26-year-old will face another World silver medalist, Lisa Dobriskey, and new-kid-on-the-block, Laura Weightman – who made the final in London.
All three have the qualifying standard, which means only the first past the post will be guaranteed selection to go to Russia, although it would be a major surprise if the full quota was not taken up.
“The event is really, really strong and it’s great to know, as a British athlete, if you get on a British team you stand a good chance of doing well internationally,” England said.
“That’s what makes this weekend really interesting, how we match up against each other. It will be quite tactical, it will be an interesting race for all of us. You have to be ready for anything.”
Which is exactly what she was in Daegu when she used her searing pace and scorched past five rivals in the home straight to finish second to America’s Jennifer Barringer Simpson.
It was more than anyone, Sebastian Coe aside, had expected: “It was really awesome to win silver, to have something to show for all the hard work I had put in during the years before with my coaches and my family and friends. It was really wonderful to come away with something – perhaps at a younger age than I expected.
“I hoped I could do something that well, to do that at 24 is pretty good. Unfortunately that’s put the bar really high, so there’s that element of if that’s how well I can do then it’s quite hard to match. But it’s a good problem to have.
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“That world medal made last season even more frustrating, I wanted to build on it. Last year definitely taught me to not take it for granted that you are going to have a good summer.
“People get criticised for performances at championships but you forget how hard it is to make championship after championship. It was great to still go to the Olympics but now I am sat here in good shape and injury free I’ll try to make the most of it.”
And she is unfazed by the fact her season’s-best time of 4:03.38 puts her 12th in the world standings. Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi leads the way having run seven seconds faster, with various Kenyans and Ethiopians also better placed – at least in terms of timings. But as England showed two summers ago, time is not the important issue, it’s where you finish that matters, not when. England is out to perfect that this weekend.