Canberra, Australia - Determined to end the cycle of boom and bust which has tormented her in recent years Jana Rawlinson has packed up her troubles and moved to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

Twice Rawlinson has won the World 400m Hurdles championship only to be floored by injuries requiring bone surgery which ruined her Olympics the following year.

In Athens four years ago it was a knee, and this time toe surgery prevented the gold medal favourite even getting to Beijing.

“Initially I was trying to put on a brave face and saying it's great, it will fire me up for London [the next Olympics in 2012]. But it was absolutely the most horrific thing I've ever been through, watching the Olympics _ my Olympics _ roll past. It was horrible,” Rawlinson said yesterday.

Back on track in December?

Rawlinson is an extraordinary talent, but headstrong and conflicted between her love for running and her need to be No.1, two aims not always easily reconciled.

“I'm really hoping to start racing in December,” she said. “I am not going to be in shape. I'm just aiming to be out there and just enjoy it. I'm not being rude, but I'm no longer the number one athlete in track and field in Australia anyway.”

“You guys can all stare at the other people and I'm just going to have fun because I've got to get back to the roots of why I do this and for the last three or four years it's always been about winning gold medals at World champs.”

“I want to come back and say why does Jana Pittman, Rawlinson ... whatever you want to call me ... do what I do and it's because I love to run at the track, because I love to get out there with the kids and I just really want to be involved in the base level again, just to hear the start gun. I heard it once this whole year.”

“I'm sick of sitting out and watching everyone else enjoy their athletics and try and make a national team. I just want to love what I do again, just simply because you love doing it and I haven't had that for years. I can't remember the last time I really enjoyed a race.”

Technical assistance to facilitate the possibility of winning the Olympics

That is obviously a sad state of affairs and Rawlinson is now reaching out for help in a technical sense, seeking to draw upon the scientific and medical expertise at the one-stop shop for elite sport _ the AIS.

“I came down to the AIS because we (Jana and her husband/coach Chris Rawlinson) are trying to have a change of environment with regards to not being injured again for the next Olympics. That's the basic start,'' she said.

“I'm not a normal athlete, unfortunately, when it comes to your post [surgery] rehab. I'm getting a bit older now and I need a little bit more hands-on stuff which the AIS do offer.”

“I've had 12 weeks off running now and I had my first running session on Saturday. It still pulls up slightly sore. But that's the main reason for being here at the AIS, to have the everyday maintenance on that situation.”

“We need a monitoring system in place to stop this happening again because it is just ridiculous I guess that someone at a top level could be ... I mean, I just let myself go to the wayside in many respects and just didn't follow a full plan of recovery just because I was so eager to get to the Games rather than take the time when it was needed so therefore I need very, very close guidance when it comes to preparation in the future.

“I moved to the AIS because I couldn't see anything changing in Sydney that would stop it from happening again. So I needed something to change to facilitate the possibility of winning the Olympics.''

Berlin defence

Rawlinson said her injuries have healed and she intends to defend her World title in Berlin next year.

“Next year we’re going full gung-ho mainly because Melaine Walker has come out - she said quite a lovely thing in one of the latest articles that’s just come out - she’s said she doesn’t feel like she’s the best until she’s beaten me because we’ve had nine clashes in our life and I’ve won every one of them,’’ Rawlinson said of Jamaica’s new Olympic 400m hurdles champion.
 
“But she also put on the end of the article that she feels like I dodged her this year, so I’ll race her in every race I can next year to make sure we get a good go on it.”

“Plus it also gives me a bit of fuel for the next few years if we’ve got a rivalry between us because clearly she has run quicker than I have, so I’m not ignorant enough to think that if I ran the same time I ran last year (in 2007) I would have won so I need to make a stand.”
 
“I know the Beijing track was quick and I’ve got a lot more running in my legs, so it’s just a matter now of trying to prove it.”

Wishing to break the pre-Olympic jinx in 2011

But she is worried, perhaps even superstitious, about the 2011 World title.

“The only year I am concerned about is 2011. I am having an easy year in 2011. I'm not winning the world champs, I can tell you that now, I'm actually thinking of boycotting,'' she said with a chuckle.

“It seems whenever I win the World champs the year before an Olympics I get injured. Anyway, well see.”

Both the athlete and her coach now have unlimited resources at their disposal but they both need to be sure they aren't simply changing addresses while bringing the same old problems with them.

“It's all there now, it's just all a little too late,” Jana said. “But if it gets me through the next two Olympics then maybe it was worth losing one.”

Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF