Ian Stewart: Athletes must be ready after winter of content before Olympics

HOW well have I trained over winter? What form am I in now? How much do I need to improve before the Olympic Games?Most athletes might believe they already have the answers to those questions, but you never know for sure until the action starts in earnest – which it does on Friday, with the first Diamond League meeting of the year in Doha.

It’s the official start to the outdoor season, and the first real chance for many Olympic hopefuls to test themselves against some of their rivals for gold in London later in the year.

People are coming out of a big winter, one in which, because of the Olympics, they have trained with more intensity than they would at other points of the four-year cycle. They may be confident that everything has gone well, they may feel strong, and ready to compete, but they will only know for sure what state they are in once they are racing against the best.

While we were holding the test event at the Olympic Stadium over the Bank Holiday weekend, the man whose event is the most eagerly awaited of the Games, Usain Bolt, was making his first outing of the year at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston. For a first time out, 9.82 seconds for the 100 metres is nothing to be sneezed at, and the fact it was the fastest in the world this year will be a quiet reminder to his would-be competitors that he is still No 1 by some way.

The Caribbean countries tend to be a little bit ahead of us at this time of year, as their winters are shorter and they follow a similar race calendar to the USA. For that reason, as well as the obvious fact that he is the fastest runner in the world, Bolt’s form was not a great surprise.

In the same meeting, Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu had a decent outing, coming third in the 400m and running as fast as I’ve seen her do at this time of year. And there have been other encouraging performances from British runners over the past week, notably Steph Twell’s 5,000m run in California.

Steph’s time of 15min 15.24sec was comfortably inside the A standard for the Olympics, and has made her the first Scot to record a qualifying time on the track this year. But, while it’s great for her to have got that time at 5,000m, she knows she still has some way to go at 1,500m.

The 15 and the five is a good combination, provided the scheduling at major championships allows you to do it, but it’s also a big ask. But I know how hard Steph works, and she will be heartened by her time in Stanford.

That’s what every athlete is looking for, really – an indication that they are getting sharper and more competitive. And timing is of the essence, too. Some of our elite athletes such as Mo Farah are already sure of their place, but for others it’s all about the trials next month before they can turn their attention to the Olympics.

Especially if they don’t yet have the A standard, they will really have to prepare for the trials as if they were the highlight of the season. If they don’t do the business in Birmingham, there will be one last opportunity for some of them at the European Championships.

There’s a fair bit of time between the trials and the Olympics, enough for everyone to get a little bit of rest in between. And then after the trials and the Europeans – and also after we announce the team – there is the Aviva London Grand Prix, one of the meetings of which I’m the race director. It’s the only two-day Diamond League meeting and this year will be a dress rehearsal for the Olympics, coming just a couple of weeks before the Games start.

For our marathon runners, of course, the London Marathon was their trial for a place on Team GB. There was a lot of speculation about who we might name as a reserve for the women’s team – Freya Murray was thought to be in with a shout, because she was just behind Claire Hallisey, who took the third qualifying place.

But British Olympic Association rules mean we cannot announce a reserve. At our selection meeting, however, we discussed what to do if somebody was forced to drop out, so you can rest assured that we have a very firm idea of how to proceed.

• Ian Stewart, head of endurance at UK Athletics and a former Commonwealth games gold medallist for Scotland, will write a regular column in The Scotsman in the run-up to the Olympic Games. Back the team and watch the world’s best athletes in action at the 2012 Aviva Series, live on the BBC. For more information visit www.uka.org.uk/aviva-series #backtheteam.