MELBOURNE, March 4 - Commonwealth Games 400m champion John Steffensen has urged his detractors to keep faith in him as he sets his sights on an Olympic medal in Beijing.
The exuberant 25-year-old won plenty of fans with his 2006 win in Melbourne, but more recent behaviour has tarnished his appeal with athletics officials and supporters.
A run-in with Athletics Australia selector Glynis Nunn-Cearns late last year over his failure to gain Olympics pre-selection, was followed by his decision to skip meets in Sydney and Melbourne this year, citing hamstring problems.
It meant he missed the chance to race against American reigning Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner.
But, after coming second in the national championships on Saturday night, he is expected to tomorrow be named in the team for Beijing.
He said today home support would be an important element in his Olympics campaign and he hoped fans would stick with him.
``When it comes to Olympic Games, that comes round every four years and you have advice from doctors telling you listen, if you keep doing what you’re doing you’re going to keep getting hurt.
``If I run and get hurt again people are going to say John Steffensen always gets hurt every time he runs,’’ Steffensen said of by-passing the Australian events.
``When I don’t run and say I’m trying to rehabilitate, they say well now he’s not trying to run, he’s trying to dodge races, it’s really hard to win here.
``All I can do is run as fast as I possibly can at the right times and we chose the right times to be the European season and Olympics this year.
``I just hope for those people that are a little bit disgruntled that I didn’t run that they just keep the faith and keep the support, because that’s what as an athlete you need, especially going into such a big event like the Olympics.’’
Steffensen’s best time remains the 44.73 seconds he ran to win gold in Melbourne.
He acknowledges he needs to break the 44-second mark to achieve his aim of a medal in China.
Wariner ran 43.45 to win last year’s world championships in Osaka.
``I’m 0.7 seconds away from running 43 (plus) seconds,’’ Steffensen told Melbourne sports radio station SEN.
``I was 0.5 seconds from running 44.7 in the Commonwealth Games and I did it. I really don’t have any mental barriers when it comes to goals.’’