It is exactly two months until the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague - and one woman cannot wait.
Germany’s Corinna Harrer has revealed how she is ready to compete in the 3000m in the 02 Arena and will aim to go one better than two years ago in Gothenburg where she finished second behind Portugal’s Sara Moreira.
Harrer, who turns 24 in just under a fortnight, is back running after injury prevented her from competing at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich last summer and she is raring to go.
She will open her indoor season in Karlsruhe on 31 January and said: 'Of course I will defend my silver medal. Since the end of November, the training runs have been really good.'
Corinna Harrer is excited to be back in training as you can see in the video below:
[VIDEO src='1274769' align='right']
Harrer is preparing for 2015 at a camp in Monte Gordo after finishing fifth behind four Africans in the New Year’s Eve Trier Silvesterlauf.
Now is she looking to make it to the top of the podium at a distance where she missed out on gold in Sweden by just two seconds in 2013 as she finished in 9:00.50 behind Moreira with Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton third in 9:00.54.
But as she told leichtathletik.de, the break from the sport has had a good effect on her.
Harrer, who had suffered with a fracture in her foot, said: 'I have learned to pay more attention to my feelings and form on the day. I had to learn probably sometime.'
Her race in Trier has left her in good stead.
'With fifth and the best German, I can live very well,' added Harrer. 'After the injury, I have now seen where I stand when it comes to standards.
'I knew that I have trained well. But you can see only in the race where we really stand; (Had) my first race been the Hallen-DM, then I would go in there probably totally insecure. We have a small note where I stand.'
Harrer had an outstanding year in 2013, with further medal success in the summer after Gothenburg when she was second in the 1500m at the European U23 Championships in Tampere.
And she is looking forward to making her mark again at the distance in this year’ s outdoor season where she hopes to improve on her personal best of 4:04.30, with a target of 4:02.00.