An Email Conversation With: Sprinter Andrew Steele

You are staying at the British team's "Holding Camp" at Macau in China ahead of the World Championships, which open in Osaka on Saturday. The name conjures visions of Ruth Madoc calling a bingo session and Steve McQueen in his bomber jacket trying to tunnel under the barbed wire. What is the reality? The title is pretty ominous but in reality it's quite luxurious. The hotel is a five-star, resort-style place. Basically, it's just a place where we can train and acclimatise. You stay in the hotel. You train. You go through your normal training life, as you would at home, but you're out here in the right sort of climate, getting used to it. The advantage of being based here ahead of the World Championships is that it will be the place they use for the Holding Camp before the Beijing Olympics next year.

Do you have a room-mate and, if so, have they subjected you to any annoying habits yet? I'm sharing with Martyn Rooney [fellow 400m runner, member of the 4x400m relay squad, who finished fifth in the Commonwealth Games and third in the World Junior Championships last year]. I think we're both as annoying as each other, so I don't think there's a problem there. There's no sort of fierce rivalry between the two of us. We're good friends.

This will be the first senior major championship in which you have run the individual 400m. Tim Benjamin has just edged you down to second in the British rankings [45.28sec to 45.31] and you're fifth in Europe, so what are you hoping for in Osaka? Obviously, I'd love to at least get back to the top of the UK rankings, but that depends on what other people do. I'd love to get back in the European top three, because that would be a really nice thing to have at the end of the season. I feel like I can do that. I've had some really good training and stuff. I'm in better shape now than when I ran my personal best earlier in the season [45.31sec in Geneva on 9 June]. Getting on a good track and getting the race right against the big athletes in the world, I'm sure I can make some sort of attempt at sub-45sec time. That would give you a nice standing in the European rankings, you'd hope.

You were cut from Lottery funding last year. Did that give you a bit of hunger and drive to prove something? People keep saying, "Oh, you're doing it because you had a point to prove." I would say as an athlete you're not running to be Lottery funded. You're running to run fast and to win things. The fact that I've run better since I've been dropped from Lottery funding is irrelevant. They [UK Athletics] were right to drop me from Lottery funding. I was disappointed with my own progress. Just because I got dropped doesn't mean I tried a bit harder. I was always going to be trying to run faster. Luckily, this year I got things right. It's nothing to do with trying to prove the selectors wrong.

You work part-time as an assistant record producer with your brother, Matt, who plays keyboards with the Brand New Heavies. Do you have any Brand New Heavies music with you there on your iPod? Definitely. It's exactly my kind of music. I've got it on the iPod for when I'm just going out to training or whatever. I've been listening to stuff off their last album but I like all of their hits. "Sometimes" is probably my favourite.

Your brother has also played with Heather Small, the lead singer in M People. Can I ask: "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" That's terrible. What have I done today to make myself feel proud? I'll have to ask Martyn. He's here in the room with me... Well, I didn't win anything on the Nintendo Wii. I did some golf, some bowling on it. I'm about to play some table tennis later – some real-life table tennis – and I reckon I'll win that, so I think I'll be quite proud of myself then. I have trained today and it's very humid here, so I have done some work. I'm not un-proud of that. I wouldn't say I was proud either, though.

You father is Dr Chris Steele, the resident doctor on ITV's This Morning. Do you get up to watch him? Yes, occasionally, but he's been on it my whole life so it's not a novelty, as such. He's been on once or twice a week over 20 years. However, occasionally he does have something interesting on, which I do watch.

With so many injuries in the British team, could you not get him a job as a consultant? He's not a sports doctor. He'd be no use prescribing some antibiotics for a hamstring tear. That probably wouldn't work. I used to want him to be a sports doctor, so he'd be right there on hand. But I just use him for the other stuff, general health things. It is pretty useful, because I never have to wait in a doctor's surgery to get a prescription or anything.

You're a Mancunian. Are you a United fan or a City fan? Or do you not want half of Manchester to hate you? I'm a United fan, but I'm not a big, big football fan. I'm a bad fan, in that I'll watch when it's going well for them and I'm not too interested when it's not – which will probably make a few people hate me, but there you go. A good friend of mine, Nedum Onuoha, actually plays for Manchester City. He's their right-back. He also played for England Under-21s in the summer. So I'm always interested in how City are doing as well.

You must have heard that Wayne Rooney has a fractured left foot, but how is the other Rooney: Martyn, your fellow 400m runner? Is he OK? He's doing pretty well, thank you very much – he says.

How would he compare with Wayne Rooney? I'll ask him... He says he's quite different, but he wouldn't mind his money.

Attachment

* Age: 22

* Events: Runs 400m and 4x400m relay for Great Britain at the World Championships in Osaka, from Saturday* club Trafford AC* coach Steve Ball

* Achievements: Improved 400m pb from 46.21sec to 45.31sec this summer. Won 400m at World Trials and National Championships in July. Member of England 4x400m team, fourth in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne

*Other: Lives Didsbury, Manchester. Assistant record producer with brother, Matt, who plays keyboards with the Brand New Heavies. Father is Dr Chris Steele, doctor on ITV'sThis Morning programme