Great Britain's Richard Kilty is hoping to draw on his past winning experiences when he takes to the starting blocks for the 60m sprint at the British Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday.
The two-time European Champion is battling his way back to full fitness following a 2017 campaign that involved huge fluctuations in form, starting with gold in the 60m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade last March before a mixture of illness and injury struck to curtail his campaign.
A freak accident ruled the 28-year-old out of World Athletics Championships in London last summer and he is still recovering from the the nasty finger injury he suffered when a large wooden door closed on his hand.
"My hand is healing well. Sometimes it's painful when I go down in the blocks and put pressure on my fingers. There is a bit of pressure when I'm running but it's the Achilles injury that has been plaguing me."
Kilty is still working his way back to form and fitness this year but he ran the 60m in 6.63 seconds in Dusseldorf recently, which is the exact qualifying mark needed for world indoor qualification this year. Something similar on Saturday would be very welcome, although competition is fierce as some of the country's finest are competing at the Arena Birmingham this weekend as they bid to secure their place on the British team for the World Indoor Championships at the beginning of March.
Kilty is hoping that experience can tell this weekend as he bids to rediscover his form of four years ago when he recovered from a slow start to the season before winning the World Indoor Championships title in Poland in 2014.
"I'm going to put that Achilles injury to the back of my mind," said Kilty. "In 2014 I had a really slow start to the indoor season and then I went to the trials and ran 6.53, so if I can replicate something around there this weekend then that will be enough."
Preparation hasn't been ideal for Kilty but he has the advantage of being able to draw on previous experiences as he bids to secure qualification on the British team for the World Indoor Championships, which take place at the Arena Birmingham during 1-4 March.
"Going into every championship you always want to win, that's obviously the goal in the back of your mind," admitted Kilty. "I don't put any pressure on myself, in 2014 I was a 66-1 underdog to win that title and I believe the reason I won that was because of the years of hard work, as well as natural ability and support.
"The mindset going into that was that I had nothing to lose and I was just so excited to be there, to be part of it all, to just run my best and enjoy it. I put no pressure on myself and as the rounds went on and when it came to the final I was so confident and I was able to produce a personal best."
Kilty will be in a similar state of mind heading into this weekend's British Indoor Championships and the self-confidence is still clearly there.
"I've won three major titles indoors so I've got nothing to prove to anyone, I'm Britain's most successful athlete indoors of recent years and no one in this current crop of athletes has achieved what I have indoors. Rather than thinking about winning a gold, I'm just concentrating on going out there and performing."
The 2014 World Indoor Champion will be hoping to remind the British selectors of what he can bring to the table when he competes in Birmingham on Saturday.
