Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

If being red-hot favourite for an Olympic gold medal is a tough burden to carry, Phillips Idowu is .

Lounging around at the Metropolitan Hotel on London's Old Park Lane, brown beanie hat pulled low over his dark red dyed hair, gold hoops through his right ear and left eyebrow and studs though his nose and lower lip, he looks as relaxed as a snoozing leopard.

"I'm a cool person by nature," he says, "I'll go out to Beijing and do what I've been doing all year - perform well, remain undefeated and hopefully bring back gold. It's just another sandpit in another country."

After this weekend's , Idowu will go to Beijing as the best triple-jumper in the world.

Undefeated all year, in the form of his life, he has just heard that Christian Olsson, reigning Olympic champion and his main rival for gold next month, is .

While this should make things easier for him, it also makes them harder. In an injury-hit GB athletics squad already , Dean Macey and , Idowu was already being flagged up as Britain's best hope of a medal. Olsson's withdrawal means that he's now expected to almost stroll away with the gold.

Phillips being Phillips, he greets it all with a sleepy smile.

"I'm going to keep my hair red for Beijing, because I've been told that's a lucky colour in China," he says. "I've heard the number eight is lucky too, so I'm going to ask for 888 on my vest for the final.

"In my head I don't even allow the image of being defeated in any competition at any time. And that seems to be working for me - I refuse to even picture a situation where I'll lose."

For many years it looked as though Idowu might not fulfil the promise he showed when as a fresh-faced, multicolour-haired, knee-high sock-wearing 21-year-old.

The unspoken expectation was that he would take over from Jonathan Edwards as the old champ faded, build on the Commonwealth silver he took behind Edwards in Manchester in 2002 and follow in Edwards's spike marks as Olympic champion in Athens.

It didn't quite work out that way. Beset by injuries - not for nothing is his event nicknamed "the cripple jump" - he had to watch as Olsson came through to become World, Olympic and European champion.

The nadir came in the . As Olsson leapt to gold, Idowu failed to even record a mark, fouling three times to finish last.

"The way it happened in Athens wasn't nice, but I don't like to think about it or even talk about it now," he says.

"I'm in a place now where I get rid of all these negative things or thoughts in my mind.

"Athens was an upset. Sydney at the first Olympics it was a great experience for me - I'll never forget that. Managing to finish in the top six was a great achievement. Athens I was coming off 18 months of injuries, so anything I could have done that year would have been a bonus.

"I hadn't been jumping that well all that year. I did have high hopes of getting a medal but it wasn't meant to be."

The turning-point for Idowu seems to have been his earlier this year. It was his first global title, won with a championship-record jump of 17.75m which also smashed Edwards' British indoor record.

"When you jump a big one, you definitely know," he says. "There's such a rhythm to the event.

"In Valencia, I knew as soon as I landed in the pit. I didn't even look back to see if it was a no-jump or not - I was out of the pit celebrating, because you know.

"Everything seems so slow - you have so much time, you barely feel like you're hitting the ground. As soon as you land in the pit it's like: yeah, that was the one. You just feel it. It's a weird sensation."

So what's made the difference this year? Why is he jumping with a consistency he's never managed before, jumping the sort of distances than no one else in the world can get near?

"We have made some changes technically to how I jump. I've been injury-free all year, which makes a huge difference - I've struggled in the past to get to a competition in one piece.

"Mentally, physically, spiritually I'm in a great place right now. I'm not taking on board any kind of negativity, and it seems to show.

"Hopefully, this Olympics will be third time lucky for me."