Milton Keynes sprinter Craig Pickering is already looking towards the future with confidence – aiming for gold at next year's European Indoor Championships.

But the Marshall Milton Keynes Athletic club runner is not going to get carried away and has promised himself to take it "one year at a time".

The 21-year-old has vowed to bounce back from the nightmare of the Beijing Olympics when his mistake led to the disqualification of the Team GB 4x100m relay squad.

He took it all on the chin, admitted to the mistake and has already been back in action.

He lined up at the Grand Prix meeting in Gateshead where he was the first Brit home, finishing fifth in 10.26s. He runs again in Italy on Sunday and again in Zagreb on Tuesday.

Craig's 100m hopes ended in the quarter-finals in Beijing but again he knows that running in one of the biggest competitions in the world will stand him in good stead for the years to come.

It will soon be time for a rest and a holiday before returning to training with coach Malcolm Arnold in October.

Craig, who is nearing completion of his exercise and science studies at Bath University, said this week: "I now have my eyes set on the European Indoor Championships in Turin next March. I won a silver last year but I will be aiming for gold this time."

The World Championships then follow in Berlin in August next year.
Craig added: "Hopefully I have a long-term athletics career ahead of me. There is already a lot of talk about the 2012 London Olympics but that is still along way off.

"I am not going to build it up too much and put too much pressure on myself.

"The Olympics were my biggest championships to date but I had a bad day at the office. However, I am not one to let that get to me."