The 'pocket rocket' as she is known, spoke to insidethegames after having given a training session at Deanery High School in Wigan, her former school, before taking a question and answer session.

The Wigan-born 800 metres runner has enjoyed the best years of her career since claiming bronze at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, going on to break the British indoor record twice the following year, before taking bronze again at the European Championships in Barcelona.

But in Daegu this year at the World Championships, Meadows missed out on the final after finishing third in her semi-final race, and she described as "unbelievable" the 1min 55.87sec time ran by eventual gold medal winner Mariya Savinova.

The 30-year-old anticipates that next year will provide her last chance to claim a medal at an Olympic Games, though if she managed to win gold she may rethink those plans.

"I'd say this will be my last Olympics...I won't retire until a couple of years after," she told insidethegames.

"I'm thinking Glasgow 2014 [Commonwealth Games] would be a good opportunity; it's in Britain, but I've been saying this will be my last Olympics.

"I'm working really hard at the moment.

"My aim is to get to the Olympic final and if I can get myself there I'll hope to be bringing a medal of some description home.

"I'm working really, really hard and I don't think a medal is unrealistic.

"Maybe if I win I'll go on for another four years."


Meadows puts her sudden spate of medals in recent years down to self-belief, also citing work done with sports psychologist Sarah Broadhead.

"I've obviously had a lot of success in the last few years and I haven't really done anything different to what I've usually been doing," she said.

"It's being on the starting line and taking myself more seriously – in years gone by I could have got psyched out by a lot of the other athletes.

"Thinking 'oh god, that's the Russian athlete' or 'that's the Jamaican'.

"Then I thought I deserve to be there as much as anyone else and it's probably that self belief.

"I'm not working any harder – I've always worked really hard, just standing on the line and believing in myself a bit more."

"[Sarah] has really helped me realise that every athlete is nervous and feels pressure.

"Every athlete looks at other athletes thinking maybe 'they're better than me'.

"She made me realise every athlete has these doubts and thinks exactly the same way.

"I've been working with her since 2009 and it is in those years I've had quite a lot of medals so I owe a bit of it to her."

Meadows says that knowing a home Games is just around the corner keeps her going in training through the cold winter months.

"I think about it [London 2012] every day.

"A few years ago 2012 felt like a fictitious event in the future that'll never happen and now it's here it's so real."

It will be even more real if she can get her hands on that elusive medal on the evening of August 11 at the Olympic Stadium next summer.

Jenny Meadows is an ambassador for Alfa Romeo - official car supplier to UK Athletics (UKA). Visit: www.alfaromeo.co.uk

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]