Hurdler Pittman driven by her destiny

SYDNEY, July 20 (Reuters) -- Jumping obstacles at full speed is not everyone's idea of fun but for Australia's Jana Pittman it has fast become an obsession.

Pittman started out as a runner who had no interest in circling a track trying to skim the top of hurdles.

But she was persuaded by a former coach to try the event when she was still a teenager and, although she fell flat on her face the first time, she was hooked straight away.

With her long legs and slender build, Pittman proved to be perfectly built for hurdling and her progress in the event has been astounding.

She became world junior champion, won the Commonwealth Games title as a teenager then won the senior title last year at her first attempt. Now, at 21, she is the favourite to win the women's 400 metres hurdles at the Athens Olympics next month.

Even before she began hurdling, Pittman had dreamt of becoming an Olympic champion but as Athens draws closer, she is consumed by the idea of gold.

"I'm obsessive about it," she recently told reporters in Australia.

"I don't know if I'm a freak and it's abnormal, but I go for a walk on the beach or listen to some music and I don't stop thinking about it."

BEE TATTOO

Pittman's fixation with her sport knows no bounds and she is always searching for that extra ounce of motivation.

Like a lot of athletes these days, she sports a tattoo, but there is no lover's name or dove on her design. Pittman's inspiration is the humble bumblebee. "Aerodynamically the bumblebee cannot fly but it doesn't know this so it goes on flying anyway," she explained.

After she won the Commonwealth title in 2002, Pittman dropped her coach to link up with Phil King, the husband and coach of Debbie Flintoff-King, Australia's 1988 400m hurdles Olympic champion.

King immediately went to work on Pittman's technique, changing her stride pattern from 16 to 15 steps, a strategy filled with risk because it meant she had to lengthen each step by about 15 centimetres and alternate her leading leg.

The pair had planned to unveil the new stride pattern in Athens but had a sudden change of heart when Russian Yulia Pechyonkina broke Kim Batten's world record just before last year's world championships.

Not wanting to concede any psychological advantage, King and Pittman decided to fast-track the new pattern to last year.

ROCKY INSPIRATION

Pittman initially doubted that she could run to the new pattern but to get her in the right frame of mind King suggested she watched the film Rocky IV before the race, because "this is the one where he beats the Russian."

Pittman duly won the world title and her victory immediately pitched her into the spotlight on an Australian track and field team desperately looking for someone to fill the void left by Cathy Freeman's retirement.

While others might have been intimidated by Freeman's achievements and the pressure she faced at the Sydney Olympics, Pittman found inspiration.

She grew up idolising Freeman and once queued for more than an hour to get her autograph. But Pittman also played a part in helping Freeman to make up her mind to retire when she took away her national 400m title.

While Freeman stayed away from Australia in the lead-up to Sydney, Pittman has made a point of visiting Athens to prepare herself for the Games. When she won a grand prix there in June, she declared she was destined to win the Olympic title.

"Now I am waiting to return to Greece...to fulfil the reason I was born," she said.

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