Athletics: Caper of the home hero and a superhero

World Indoor Championships: Caines hopes to make light of the pressure as Batman threatens to rob his glory

There will only be 8,000 people in the National Indoor Arena, rather than the 110,000 who packed Stadium Australia, but for Daniel Caines the men's 400m final at the world indoor championships – presuming he survives the heats and semi-finals – is going to be something akin to the pressure-cooker experience the Olympic women's 400m final was for the home favourite at the Sydney Olympics three years ago.

"It's a bit like it was for Cathy Freeman, I guess," Daniel Batman mused, drawing the parallel between his Australian compatriot and his British rival. "Daniel Caines is the favourite. He's the reigning champion and he's on home ground. I'm glad all the pressure's on him."

It just so happens that the one reigning champion the host nation possesses going into the world indoor championships, which open in Birmingham on Friday and run through to Sunday, is a Brummie boy. For two years now, since he held off the fast-finishing American Milton Campbell to win his world title in Lisbon, Caines has known he would be defending it at the National Indoor Arena, just seven miles from his Solihull home. He has been ready for the pressure to build.

"Too right, too right," he said. "I'm the reigning world indoor champion, the only one that Great Britain has. And I'm competing in Great Britain, in England, in my home city, my own backyard even. I just live 10 minutes away. So obviously that doesn't half pile the pressure on.

"But I'm happy to be in a position where I can feel a bit of pressure. Obviously, that means that I'm a semi-decent athlete. Darren Campbell said to me the other week: 'Run well here in Birmingham and that'll set you up for the rest of your career'. I believe him and that's what I intend to do."

Caines, a member of the Birmingham club Birchfield Harriers, has been running well all winter. He has won in Glasgow, Ghent and Birmingham and tops the world ranking list with 45.76sec. He has not lost an indoor race for three years. His situation, however, differs from that of Freeman in one crucial respect. He has a rival to contend with who is capable of stealing his thunder, and his crown.

In the absence of the local hero from the British trials meeting at the National Indoor Arena last weekend, the guesting Batman made his presence felt. A squat, muscular figure, very much in the mould of the great British indoor 400m specialists Todd Bennett and Jamie Baulch, he twice broke Darren Clark's Australian indoor record, running 46.40sec in the semi-finals and 45.93sec in the final. He can clearly go faster too. It was his first experience of indoor competition, and there was no one in the field capable of exerting any pressure on him.

At 21, Caines's junior by two years, Batman is threatening to live up to his name – and to the logo tattooed on his right arm. "My father always told me it was a prestigious thing to have Batman as my name," he said. "My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was John Batman, the man who founded Melbourne. I'm proud of the Batman name. That's why I put a Batman logo on my arm. I'm also a Batman fan, I guess. I always watch the Batman movies before I run, just to get motivated."

Batman the runner also draws inspiration from Darren Clark, who led for 350m of the 400m final at the Los Angeles Olympics as a 19-year-old before finishing tantalisingly out of the medals in fourth place. "I'm coached by Craig Hilliard at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra," Batman said, "but Darren helps me as a mentor. He's a big inspiration to me. He talks a bit like Rocky to me, just motivating me. He said to me last weekend: 'Just seize the moment'."

The young Australian is certainly seizing the chance to fulfil the potential he first showed as a 17-year-old member of the Australian 4 x 400m relay team who struck gold at the world junior championships in Annecy in 1998. He ran the second leg, as did a youthful Caines in a British quartet who finished fifth.

Two years later, after snapping a hamstring 150m into his first-round heat at the Sydney Olympics, Batman turned temporarily away from the track, citing disillusionment about drug use in the sport. A former Australian schools rugby union centre, he trained with the ACT Brumbies for six months, but then made the decision to return to quarter-miling. "I missed it so much," he said. "I missed the personal challenge of running."

Since last weekend, Batman has been preparing for his next challenge in the North-west of England, staying with his sister-in-law in Liverpool and training on the new Sport City indoor track in Manchester. He has been accompanied by his partner, Nova Peris, and their 11-month-old daughter, Destiny. Like Cathy Freeman, Peris was a home runner in the women's 400m at the Sydney Olympics. She failed to reach the final, but had already beaten Freeman to the distinction of becoming the first Aborigine Olympic champion. She was a member of the Hockeyroos, the victorious Australian women's hockey team at Atlanta in 1996.

Now Batman has his sights on a global gold medal too. "Like I said, Daniel Caines is the favourite," he reiterated. "But I guess I've got nothing to lose. I'm just going to go out there next week and I'm going to fly." Which is what you would expect of a Batman, naturally.