Games give Pittman chance to shine

Australian track star Jana Pittman says winning gold at this year's Commonwealth Games will rank as highly as anything she has achieved in her career.

Pittman has two Commonwealth gold medals to her name, from Manchester in 2002, became the youngest ever world 400m hurdles champion in 2003 and made the final of the same event at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

But she said gold in Melbourne in March would have special significance, both because it would signal a return to the top after her injury troubles of the past two years and because it would be in front of a huge home crowd.

"Even though it's a Commonwealth Games, for me it's such a big milestone," Pittman said.

"I have won Commonwealth Games and world championships before, but this holds a very special spot in my heart.

"I feel like it's a comeback, even though I haven't retired."

Pittman has had to endure two major injury setbacks in the past two years, with a knee injury destroying her bid for Olympic gold in 2004, although she still managed to come fifth, then a back injury preventing her from competing in last year's world championships.

Those problems stalled her stunning career rise, with her personal best time for the 400m hurdles still the 53.22 seconds she ran to be a surprise winner in the 2003 world championships.

But she said winning in Melbourne would provide even greater joy than that win in Paris.

"The difference between the world championships and this is the world championships was in front of 10,000 people who knew me out of a crowd of 100,000," she said.

"This time the night of my final is a sellout and about 90,000 people will be yelling for me and having something to do with what we hope will be history."

Pittman said she would decide in the next couple of weeks whether to concentrate solely on her pet event the 400m hurdles, or also enter the flat 400m.

While she is clearly the best in the Commonwealth over the hurdles, she would face a far stiffer challenge in the flat event, with the field including Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling, of the Bahamas.

Pittman said while she favoured running the double, she would need to be in quick form, and the other option was to concentrate on running a very quick time in the hurdles.

While she is the hot favourite to win the hurdles, she said she would not underestimate her opponents.

"I don't think I'll ever take anybody for granted. People took me for granted in 2002 and 2003 and I won," she said.

"You're silly if you think you're unbeatable."