Comeback trail

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Saturday 21st Jan 2006.

OLYMPIC athlete Matt O'Dowd is hoping to put an injury-plagued last couple of seasons behind him in time for August's European Championships in Sweden.

The 29-year-old Swindon Harrier will sit out the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, due to missing the trials with a hip injury, but insists they were never a major priority anyway.

O'Dowd has struggled for fitness since finishing 50th in the marathon in the Athens 2004 Olympics but, with a recent foot injury and stomach bug behind him, he is fighting to be ready for Gothenburg.

April's Flora London Marathon will double up as a selection race for the championships and, with just 14 weeks to go, O'Dowd knows he has some hard work ahead.

He said: "It has not been the ideal start to the season for me as I missed about a month with a bad foot and then followed that up with a stomach bug.

"I should be back in training in the next few days though and hopefully that will give me enough time for London.

"I believe they are setting the qualifying time at two hours, 16 minutes and 30 seconds and with five places up for grabs, I believe I can do enough to get my place.

"Getting back to a marathon distance takes a while though and it is going to be a tough ask. As long as everything goes smoothly there should not be a problem but as has been proved in the last couple of years, you can't always rely on that."

The Loughborough based athlete, who finished 11th in the 5000m in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 but he insists he had no desire for a repeat visit to the Commonwealth's this time round.

He said: "The Europeans are a much bigger event than the Commonwealths. I never had an interest in qualifying for Australia and so an injury around the time of the trials was a convenient excuse.

"It would have been too tough to run in both major championships this year and as I have never competed in the Europeans before that is the one I really want.

"The European Championships mean more to the athletes as we all know each other and it is a bit like a grudge match."

O'Dowd, who was brought up in Rodbourne and went to Commonweal School, has been plagued by a series of injuries since competing in Athens.

In 2005 he suffered tendonitis and was forced to withdraw from the London Marathon and the Prague Marathon.

A hip injury saw him unable to defend his AAA title in June last year, while his recent foot injury has forced him to start this season later than he hoped.

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