"I feel like this is finally my time." Great Britain's sprint star Asha Philip has already won numerous medals in elite company but she is in bullish mood as she prepares to reap the rewards of a change in training environment.
Speaking ahead of the British Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday, the 27-year-old revealed that she spent the winter training with the legendary sprint coach Vince Anderson in Texas in a bid to find the small improvements that would make her a consistent force on the world's sprinting stage.
The biggest change has seen Philip move her home training base from Loughborough back to her home city of London. "I feel like the bond I have with my coach right now is really working," said Philip. "I'm not saying Loughborough was a bad place to be because I learned so much as a young woman just by being there but I'm such a family person and being back in London, I've got a bigger smile on my face and a spring in my step. That has been a massive change because I'm happier being back home."
Philip, an integral member of the British team that won bronze in the 4 x 100m replay at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and then silver at last year's World Championships in London, has flourished on a personal level during her best ever start to an indoor season in 2018. A rapid time of 7.12 seconds for the 60m in Karlsruhe was followed by victory in Dusseldorf last week and she is moving ominously towards the form that saw her set a British record of 7.06 seconds en route to winning 60m gold at the European Indoor Championships last March.
"I think a lot of people didn't believe that I could make it back after my knee injury [Philip suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury in 2007 at the Trampoline World Championships before focusing on athletics] but I've been to Olympics, World Championships and Europeans, and now I've got my first individual medal, it proves to myself that I am capable of being more than just a part of this environment. I think people doubting me made me a stronger person."
Philip will get a chance to impress on Saturday at the British Indoor Athletics Championships, where Britain's best athletes will be looking to meet qualifying standards for the World Indoor Athletics Championships, which also take place at the Arena Birmingham during 1-4 March.
"This will be my fourth World Indoors and if I don't leave with a medal I will be very disappointed, particularly with it being on home soil. I've been so close to a medal in the past but keep just missing out and I feel like this is finally my time."
Philip will take some beating on current form and home advantage could be crucial on Saturday, as well as in two weeks time when the best of the world's athletes head to the Midlands.
