Athletics: Holmes losing hunger to race

Kelly Holmes yesterday cast doubt on whether she would run at next year's World Championships, adding that she doubted whether she would ever have the same hunger for competition following her Olympic triumphs.

Kelly Holmes yesterday cast doubt on whether she would run at next year's World Championships, adding that she doubted whether she would ever have the same hunger for competition following her Olympic triumphs.

Speaking at the Norwich Union training camp she is holding here for promising junior British runners, the 34-year-old Olympic 800 and 1500 metres champion pointedly avoided committing herself to future championships, including the next global one.

Asked if she would compete at Helsinki in August she replied: "I don't know. Really at the moment my focus is totally on this camp. Past that I haven't thought of anything. I will have to go home and start re-evaluating.

"But as I go along through all my interviews I think people will realise I'm happy to have achieved everything I wanted to achieve. I just happen to be an athlete still because I can be.

"To be honest I don't think I'll ever have the same focus. I'll never have the same hunger to really be determined when I apply myself to something. I'm not going to run just for the sake of running. You have to run with determination otherwise, why bother?''

Holmes has already begun training after taking a three week break from the sport. But she left her options wide open on the subject of which races she planned to do from now on.

"I hope to run a couple of domestic indoor meetings if everything goes smoothly but whether I do the European Indoor Championships will depend on whether I'm in shape to go there and do something good. On my first day back in training I felt like a donkey. The next day I felt like a slug. I keep telling myself now we are getting to the tortoise stage.''

Max Jones, the outgoing UK Athletics Performance Director, is known to be keen to get Holmes on board to race for Britain in the European Cup this spring given that the team were relegated from the Super League at this year's event in Poland. But Holmes' name won't necessarily be on the team sheet. "Of course it would be good for the team if I ran there, but whether I would be there I don't know.''

* The Former triple Olympic champion Marion Jones's training for next season is going well, according to her coach Steve Riddick, who also coaches Tim Montgomery. "Whatever you saw last year, put it out of your mind. We have had some great training sessions. People are going to enjoy it when they see her compete."