Rowing: Katherine Grainger better prepared than ever to fulfil her dream of gold

IT'S her last chance. But also her best chance. After winning a silver medal at each of the last three Olympic Games, Katherine Grainger is determined to claim gold in London next year, and believes she has never been in better shape.

The Glasgow-born rower will be 36 in November, and had to think long and hard after Beijing before deciding to carry on competing for another four-year cycle. With a wealth of other interests awaiting her, among them an unfinished PhD in criminology, Grainger is sure to have a rich and varied life after she stops competing, but for the moment she has only one focus: the opportunity to take part in a home Games.

Mentally, she has greater experience than any of her rivals in handling the pressure. Physically, she is at least as strong as ever, and continues to finesse her technique. Always a scrupulously self-critical athlete, she genuinely feels that this time she is better prepared than ever before.

"I do, absolutely," Grainger said yesterday at Meadowbank in Edinburgh, where she was taking part in the Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week. "Every single event I've had has helped me, whether they've been fantastic or painful experiences, they've all helped. I've learned masses from all of them, so I really will go into this far more experienced than I've ever been before and able to deal with things.

"It's a home Olympics, and no-one in the team has experienced that before. Before we get there we won't know exactly how big it's going to feel, but with my experience and that of some of the people around us, we'll go through as much as we can before we get there, talking through it."

When it comes to physical preparation, Grainger's scientific approach to rowing is akin to that of her fellow Scot Chris Hoy's in cycling: every minuscule difference counts, especially once you add them all together. "There's a limit to how much more training you can physically do, because of the hours in the day and recovery. We already do so much.

"But you then begin to work on efficiency. It's the same work, but doing it better and making it more effortless. The more energy you can save, the better.

"You go to so many races, people go all over the world, there are so many training styles, but the big races come down to hundredths of a second. The difference between the winning and losing is massive in result, but the actual distance can be tiny.

"So anything you do in training - physical, tactical, mental, psychological - to bring down those margins is worth it. Because you win or lose by that."

Competing in a home Olympics will bring its pressures as well as advantages, but for Grainger the latter outweigh the former.

In any case, the pressure she puts on herself tends to block out any external demands.

"A lot of athletes who I first started my career with, who have since retired across a lot of sports, have never had this experience - and have all reminded me how lucky I am. To actually be at the top of your game at the time of a home Olympics is incredibly rare.

"And it just doesn't come to your home nation very often. So when you are at the right age and ability to compete then you are going to leap at it if you get the chance.

"When you are genuinely aiming at the very, very top level, the pressure you put on yourself is more than anything else could be anyway. So yes, I know what result I want and I know what result we should be aiming at. Everything else that goes with it isn't necessarily going to change that. That's pressure in itself."You can let it affect you in a negative way and think that it's slightly crippling or paralysing and think what if it doesn't go well with everyone watching as the nation expects and all that. Or you can look at it as an incredible opportunity where what I am trying to achieve is so special in its own right, but there's also a whole nation who want that for me as well and want to see it. I really want to enjoy it, so you turn that potential additional pressure or expectation into a positive." A prototype of the London 2012 Olympic Torch was with Grainger in Edinburgh yesterday, just one of an increasing number of reminders to her of how quickly the Games are approaching, and of how speedily her previous triumphs are receding into history. While proud of the medals she won in Sydney, Athens and Beijing, she knows they will count for nothing next year - and hopes they will in any case be eclipsed by a gold.

"I'm incredibly proud of the medals I've got already, but when the London Olympics come round I won't be thinking about them," she said.

"They give me a lot of confidence, every single one of them adds to the experience and knowledge of the event, but when it comes to the London start line it's only about the next medal, not what has gone before.

"Nobody has their name on any of those medals yet. I know from brutal experience that there are no guarantees. It's about making it happen on the day: however much I've won or lost up to that point, everyone starts level on the start line and it's about covering those 2,000 metres as fast as we can."