TIM CAN'T WAIT TO GET GOING

By RICHARD LEWIS, Sunday Mirror 19/08/2007

TIM BENJAMIN believes he has run into form at just the right time as he bids to make his mark again at the World Championships.

Two years ago at the last Worlds in Helsinki, Benjamin, Britain's No.1 400m runner, was the only male athlete in the team to make an individual final when he finished fifth.

He has been hit by injury since and this season he has coped with leaving coach Tony Lester to join Colin Jackson, then nine months later going back to him.

Benjamin ran his quickest time for two years at last month's Norwich Union London Grand Prix, when he clocked 45.28, and he said: "One race turned everything around for me.

"That is what athletics can do and it came at just the right moment."

He has been at the British camp in Macau, China, for more than a week and before he left he produced his best training session of the summer.

Benjamin, also a member of internet telephone company Team Vonage, said: "The ease with which I am running means I am hitting times which would have been hard to do earlier in the year."

He will not be quick enough to halt defending champ Jeremy Wariner, who on the fast track in Osaka could threaten the world record of 43.18 by fellow American Michael Johnson.

Wariner ran 43.50 in Stockholm this month, and in May he clocked 44.02 in Osaka on the surface used for the Championships.