World indoor and outdoor 800m champion Maria Mutola broke her 'silence' yesterday to speak about her feelings of disappointment regarding Athens, her hopes for the future, and what factors are helping the 32 year-old remain motivated after so narrowly failing to defend her Olympic crown.

In the women’s Olympic 800m final in Athens on 23 August, five athletes finished in under 1:57, in what was one of the tightest, most enthralling middle distances finals in Games history.

As the eventual gold medallist Britain’s Kelly Holmes and the defending champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique entered the finishing straight, with a large posse of runners at their heels, few would have bet against the latter's chances. Fewer still would have wagered on Mutola leaving the track without a medal at all.

Definitively there was at least one doubter in the stadium in Athens. In only the second international interview she has given since the Olympics, Mutola confirmed that her confidence had been rocked prior to the Games.

Notably, following a left hamstring injury she suffered a shock defeat in Lausanne on 6 July, and she had incurred further problems, to her right calf, after her win in Zurich (6 Aug).

“After the problem in Lausanne I kind of knew that I would have a tough time,” revealed Mutola. “I could only train on and off. My left hamstring was really, really bad. When I tried to run I just didn’t feel like me. I did everything to win in Zurich but had problems again (right calf) even though I had been easing my way back slowly. It made me realise maybe this might not be my year.”

“I can go back to that day (in Athens) and feel a bit disappointed....Everything went down hill after those (injury) problems. I couldn’t train properly. I tried to train a little bit on the track and it would hurt and so I would rest and then go back and try again. So I just was not well prepared, and went to the Olympic Games with a lot of doubts, hoping that I would do something over there (in Greece)but knowing I was not in my best shape.”

The race (final) was very close in Athens, but I had spent the (qualifying) rounds trying not to give anything away about my form because I didn’t want anyone to know I had problems. I wanted to run the final to my strengths but when it came to trying to sprint 100% I just felt that something in my body was just not quite there.”

”The race just didn’t go the way I had planned. I was hoping to win, I was then hoping to come second…it just didn’t happen.”

Yet Mutola remains philosophical about her Olympic disappointment, and counts her career as having been lucky in terms of fitness.

“I have been injury free since 1991. I was able to train and run good until the problems of this year.”

“It is most disappointing because this time the injury happened in an Olympic year. For the first time it upset my plans for a big race. Back in 1991 it (an injury) came just before the Worlds in Tokyo but I was young then. But what can you do, injury is not something that you can control.”

What about her 'disappearance' after the Olympics which many had put down to her frustration at what had occurred in Athens?

“After the Olympics, I was planning to compete in the World Athletics Final but after I returned to South Africa to train for it my hamstring was just so bad I could not train.”

“After a week I decided to give in and my coach told me to forget about the final, and to give my hamstring time to heel.”

“It is healed again now and I am back training but as yet I haven’t tried to sprint because that can bring back the problem if I try too soon. So I am just doing long runs and conditioning work.”

Mutola, who captured her sixth World Indoor 800m title earlier this year in Budapest, is presently motivated to train by the prospect of the forthcoming indoor season but everything obviously rides on the full recovery of her hamstring.

“I am training for the indoor season and hopefully next month sometime I will get back to some speed work and we will see from there what shape I’m in and whether the hamstring is still bothering me or if it’s gone forever.”

“I have always enjoyed the indoor season and that is my main motivation at present but yes if my hamstring doesn’t bother me the World Championships in Helsinki are a goal.”

“I have very few thoughts on my mind except about my hamstring and wanting to be back well and racing again on the circuit.”

What has satisfied Mutola most since the Olympics, and allowed her to build positively on the experience, is the warm reception that she has received from her nation.

“I was very pleased with people’s reaction in Mozambique after what happened to me in Athens. When I first went back there after Athens there was a Police escort waiting to take me on the 50 minute drive to Maputo. At the border the President of the National Olympic Committee and the Minister of Sport were all waiting there for me.”

“It was so good of them to greet me like that, as I had thought that maybe now I had not won, that things would change a bit. But it did not change anything. In fact it (their reaction) has motivated me more.”

Chris Turner for the IAAF