Athletics: Lewis-Francis goes for sprint glory in his own backyard

Birmingham rocket aims to upset 60 metres formbook at the World Indoor Championships

It is a shame in a way that there is no category for pogoing at the World Indoor Championships that get underway in Birmingham tomorrow. Because Mark Lewis-Francis would have to be a favourite for gold.

In the immediate aftermath of his 60 metres victory at the World Indoor trials earlier this month, the 20-year-old who was born less than a mile away from the National Indoor Arena expressed his elation by bouncing up and down on the spot. According to his coach, Steve Platt, he was still bouncing half an hour later after his statutory visit to doping control.

With Britain's leading indoor sprinter this season, Jason Gardener, absent with a niggling hamstring problem, Lewis-Francis had to overcome the formidable challenge of Britain's European outdoor champion Dwain Chambers to claim the only other place on offer.

After holding off his faster-finishing rival to win by a hundredth of a second, the former Darlaston schoolboy reflected with palpable excitement upon what the future may hold for him. "I'm just looking forward to my career in five years' time," he said. "This is just the start for me."

It has already been one of the more remarkable starts in sprinting history. Having begun training with Birchfield Harriers at the age of 12, Lewis-Francis won the World Youth Championships and then the World Junior Championships, choosing the latter event in preference to the 2000 Olympics. Six months later he took his first senior international medal – a bronze at the last World Indoor Championships in Lisbon – before clocking 9.97sec at that summer's World Championships, a time that was nullified for record purposes because of a faulty wind gauge.

Last year brought the wunderkind his first serious strife as he was heavy-handedly dealt with for driving with a provisional licence, being jailed overnight on his return from winning silver at the European Indoor Championships. Five months later he endured a more damaging blow as he slowed to a stagger in the Commonwealth Games final at a point when he looked as if he was moving to the front. Torn hamstring. Season over.

"What happened in Manchester opened my eyes and made me realise I'm human like everyone else," Lewis-Francis said. "It was a shock to the system."

Platt, who works as a motor engineer at GKN in Aldridge, believes it was the imminence of success that made the experience worse for his young charge. "If he had been off the pace when it happened it wouldn't have been such a shock, but he looked like getting the gold or the silver," he said. "And it made it worse being at home."

To have missed out on world championships being held in his own backyard would have been even more painful. "Mark has been promoting the Championships for months," Platt said. "But I don't think he realised until a couple of days before the trials how much it meant to him. He said to me: 'Hey, I might not get through this, you know.'

"I think there has been extra pressure on local athletes such as Mark, Ashia Hansen and Daniel Caines. He's started thinking about the competition earlier than he normally would do. He's nervous already."

What will help to steady those nerves is the incontrovertible fact that Lewis-Francis cannot be considered as a favourite for the event. With a best this season of 6.57sec he is – theoretically at least – adrift of his British team-mate Gardener, who has twice clocked 6.49 this year, and the two US qualifiers Justin Gatlin and Terence Trammell, who have run 6.45 and 6.46 this season.

As Lewis-Francis pointed out in the aftermath of his last victory at Birmingham, he is an athlete who rises to the big occasion. It remains to be seen how much faster he can go this weekend, but his world junior record of 6.51, set in winning his world indoor bronze, is a clear indicator of his potential.

Since then, however, Lewis-Francis has grown at least another couple of inches and during the winter months he has undergone a routine that involves increased lifting of weights and conditioning work.

"It's been the best winter's training he has ever had," Platt said. "But we have been a bit apprehensive because you don't know exactly how these things are going to affect him. I think it might just have taken it out of him a little bit more than previous seasons. It's taken him a lot longer than normal this year to get the speed back into his legs. In fact, if the World Championships hadn't been in Birmingham it might have been 'Shall we wait until the outdoor season?'"

But there is no room for doubt now. In the arena where he performed so masterfully last Saturday week, Lewis-Francis will be seeking a second victory. Two on the bounce, in fact.