Why Kwakye won't come up short in the long run

The diminutive sprinter from Essex matched her notorious team-mate by winning a silver over 60metres in the fastest time over the distance by a British athlete for 20 years.

Kwakye's time of 7.08sec catapulted her up the rankings and was all the more impressive as it came only two months after she turned full-time as an athlete, giving up her job at an Enfield steel supplier.

Having recently returned from warm weather training in Florida, Kwakye is now intent on proving she can transform that coup in Spain into success over 100m to bring her within touching distance at the Beijing Olympics of the top sprinters from Jamaica and the United States. It is a formidable challenge that will require her to knock at least two tenths of a second off her personal best of 11.26sec.

"Valencia has changed my outlook on track and field," she said. "It makes me go out there and try to achieve things I know I'm capable of doing. It's given me a lot more hunger.

"I got to the top eight in the world over 60m so why can't I do it outside as well. But I don't limit myself. You have to get below 11.10sec to make an Olympic final and to be comfortable in that final. If I can manage to take a tenth off my indoor 60m time the sky is the limit for 100m."

Kwakye has been training at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Pickett's Lock which, apart from being conveniently close to her Chingford home, has become something of a medal factory.

It produced five podium athletes at the World Indoor Championships - Kwakye, long jumper Chris Tomlinson, heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, triple jumper Phillips Idowu and Chambers.

At just 5ft 3in, Kwakye relies heavily on power and admits her running style is not the most graceful. She suffered repeated muscle injuries early in her career as her body struggled to cope with the heavy training but believes these are a thing of the past.

Kwakye believes there is a new confidence among sprinters that the war against doping is being won and she explains the breaking of men's 100m world records - most recently by Jamaican Usain Bolt - as part of evolution. She said: "It's almost evolutionary with Bolt, Asafa [Powell] and Tyson [Gay] running that quick. These guys are doing superhuman things and, hopefully, the British boys can say, 'We can achieve that too'. We have all got confidence that the [anti-doping] system is working at the moment."

She said the British team are ready and willing to follow "Project Believe" endorsed by world 200m champion Allyson Felix, who has volunteered to give more than the mandatory number of drugs tests in a bid to restore credibility.

"I would be more than willing to get involved with a project like that because there can be a lot of scepticism and cynicism among the general public about what athletes can do," said Kwakye.

"Allyson Felix is a phenomenal talent and cynicism will follow her but for her to do that, you can't fault her."