'In one word, what matters outdoors is Barcelona,' said Italian 800m star Elisa Cusma Piccione. She will start her 2010 campaign at the Italian indoor championships in Ancona this weekend.

Italy's Elisa Cusma Piccione hasn't quite had the start to the year that she would have liked but the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships 800m bronze medallist is now ready to stretch her legs in competition.

She will have her first races of the year at the Italian indoor championships this weekend in Ancona, to test her strength after recent injury issues.

"I should have already run, I planned to compete last Saturday in Birmingham, but I had some small physical problems during my last period of training in South Africa," revealed Cusma Piccione, in an interview on the Italian federation web site www.fidal.it.

"It was a small strain in my right calf, fortunately everything is already better, I would know if it wasn't as even with the slightest pain, I feel it immediately," added the 28-year-old from Bologna, who also finished sixth over two laps of the track at the World Championships last summer.

"However, generally, it all went well during the month-and-a-half I spent in Potchefstroom apart from this minor physical inconvenience in the last 10 days. We were a good group with many foreign athletes, including the World Championships 800m bronze medallist, Jennifer Meadows (from Great Britain)," added Cusma.

"However, when I returned to Italy, I caught a cold immediately and also couldn't train for three days.  Now, I definitely need to compete. Last year, in Karlsruhe, my indoor debut for the year went very well, I won, I set a national indoor record (of 1:59.25). This year I don't think I'm in that sort of shape but we'll see how it goes from here to the World Indoor Championships in Doha."

Later in the year, she hopes to be able to be in shape to have a good attempt at reducing Gabriella Dorio's long-standing Italian 800m record of 1:57.66, which has now stood for nearly 30 years since 1980.  Cusma Piccione's best is 1:58.63, which she ran three years ago. 

However, an even bigger priority for Cusma is to make an impact at the European Athletics Championships this summer. She made the semi-finals of the last Championships four years ago.

"In one word, what matters outdoors is Barcelona. At the Europeans I want to confirm what I showed last year. I may not do just the 800. I don't know yet but (in South Africa) it got into my head to try to do the 1500m more seriously this year," added Cusma Piccione, who can already boast of a respectable best of 4:04.98 over the longer distance.