Holmes wants place in history
Kelly Holmes today sets out on the quest for more Olympic golden glory here in Athens believing that she can achieve an historic middle-distance double.
Yet the newly crowned 800-metres champion worries that her stiffest test will be just to come down to earth after her dazzling triumph and get through tonight's heats of the 1500m at the Olympic Stadium.
Britain's new golden girl, our first champion at the two-lap event since Ann Packer in Tokyo 40 years ago, admitted today that her elevation to the golden elite at the age of 34 had come as a real surprise to her.
Yet, looking towards the start of the longer event tonight, Standard Sport's Olympic columnist reckoned she would be giving "110 per cent" to become the first British athlete since Albert Hill in the Antwerp Games of 1920 to achieve the 800m/1,500m double.
Holmes said today: "I've got one Olympic gold medal now and I'm going for another. I can hardly believe I'm actually saying that. If you want to know why I haven't really thought too much about going for the middle distance double until now, it's that I didn't really expect to win the 800m if I'm honest.
"I'm under no illusions about how difficult it's going to be. But I've learned this week that anything's possible now. I've got nothing to lose because I've got my gold and that can't be taken away from me.
"But I do think the hardest part is going to be to pick myself up for tonight's race after being on such a high. It's going to be an absolutely huge test to see if I can get back the focus."
Meanwhile, Dean Macey resumed his quest for the decathlon this morning with a strong performance in the 100m hurdles. He finished third in his heat in a time of 14.56secs earning him 903 points. Even though it was not the most fluent run, he showed no visible signs of distress from the opening day's exertions.
