Andrew Pozzi has unfinished business in Rio after hurdling pain barrier

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It is perhaps telling that Andrew Pozzi’s Wikipedia page ends rather abruptly at the 2012 Olympics.

Grimacing holding his hamstring, he was forced to pull out of his home Games and it is only now - one Olympiad on - that he has finally eradicated the injury problems and is recapturing the sort of form he showed when he burst onto the scene as a teenager.

Those performances led the former 110 metres hurdle world champion Colin Jackson to brand him a world No1 in the event in the making - only for a catalogue of injuries, predominantly with his feet rather than his hamstring, to strike.

“I’d had problems before 2012, probably going back to when I was 15 or 16,” said the 24-year-old, who has metal screws in both feet and got to know his surgeon so well he sat with his parents to watch the Anniversary Games one year.

“There’s been some career-threatening moments in there but I never felt like quitting. I’d remember ‘right, I can do this one more time’ and then it would happen all over again and it was ‘here we go again’.

“I did wonder if I’d ever sort out my injury problems but I couldn’t stop as I just didn’t feel like I’d finished. I’d not accomplished what I wanted to do.”

His perseverance has proved well placed, Pozzi having shown his best form this season and clocking a personal best at the Anniversary Games last month with a time of 13.19 seconds.

But from the outside looking in, it has not been without its gremlins, Pozzi pulling out of the final in London and also at the preceding European Championships as a precaution with cramp. It has led to question marks over whether his body would hold up to the rounds in Rio.

In Pictures: Team GB's medal run at Rio 2016 Olympics

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He came through the opening round well yesterday – finishing second in his heat – and aims to build on that in the semi-finals in the early hours of Wednesday morning followed, hopefully, by the final.

“I know how it might look but it’s not like that at all,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Rio, I would have gone and raced but I’ve worked too hard to take a risk. It was a small risk but a risk nonetheless.

“It’s been tough and I was particularly upset in Amsterdam as I felt I was in contention to win, or at least win a medal. But that’s just made me focused on the goal…Rio.”

Pozzi’s parents, two brothers and a sister are in the stands in Brazil to watch him in action.

Rio 2016 Olympic Games Moments - In pictures

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He jokes that mum and dad “have probably been to more major championships than I have”. He added: “They’ve bought tickets and then something else has gone wrong. Having them here is great as I couldn’t have been through all of this without them.”

Having been off the radar for so long, he is adamant he is not overly focused on the outcome, his time or the medals, rather just putting into practice what he has been taught by coach Malcolm Arnold, who fittingly coached Jackson to his career successes.

And he is hopeful his return to form will coincide with a brighter period for the sport in light of its doping and corruption controversies.

To his mind, the IAAF needs praise for their blanket ban on Russia even despite the negative headlines.

“I find it hard when athletics is getting a hard time but that’s because the IAAF are willing to shake things up,” he said, “and that inevitably comes with negative headlines. At least they’re doing something about it.

“Both the IAAF and British Athletics have taken a strong stance on doping and, the more that happens, the less cheats there will be, the less victims of fraud. I’m just very happy our governing body wants to take action on doping and we can believe more of the results we’re seeing.”

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