ATHLETICS/World Championships: Ian O'Riordan talks to hurdler Peter Coghlan, who has his sights firmly fixed on the Olympics.

Two days before Paris plays host to the World Athletics championships Peter Coghlan tells his story of the perfect preparation. Improve steadily all season, set a series of national records in world class times, and then depart with your confidence on a high.

The only problem for Coghlan is his story is now four years old. It was just prior to the 1999 championships in Seville when he ran 13.30 seconds for the 110 metres hurdles, lowering the Irish record for the fourth time that summer, and he was clearly in form to mix it with the best in the world. As it turned out he missed the final by one place and the future never looked so bright.

Four years on and Coghlan heads to Paris with those memories still fresh, but without either the world class times or the confidence. And he knows how his story of this summer sounds to general observers of Irish athletics. Sure he had that one great year and he's still struggling to match it. Probably never will.

Sporting careers are often persecuted by such stories. One breakthrough season, never to be repeated. It's a fate Coghlan, even at the age of 28, refuses to accept.

"There's no way I'm going to say I'm in the best shape of my life right now. Like most athletes would tell you before a World Championship. But I know I can get back to my best, and improve again. And when I do that will mean competing for medals at the World Championships and the Olympics."

That quest to rediscover his best in time for next year's Athens Olympics is where the story of Peter Coghlan now really stands. Paris is a stepping stone, an important part in the process of putting four years of frustration behind him. Especially in an event so technical. His best this season is 13.76 seconds and he'll need to improve quite considerably on that to get out of the first round heats.

But if he runs 13.30 again, like he plans to do next year, then Coghlan can expect to be billed once again as a rare genuine Irish medal contender. A measure of how close he feels he is to a major breakthrough, the time he has engraved in his mind and believes he is capable of, 13.25, got the bronze medal at the last World championships in Edmonton.

Part of his enduring optimism comes from the fact that the past four years haven't been a total wash-out. After the hard season of 1999 he felt a chronic pain in his groin grow deeper, and that necessitated a major operation in March of 2000. He recovered just in time to make the Sydney Olympics, and while he wasn't at his best he felt it so important to at least compete.

So to prepare for 2001 he again left his family in Dublin for his training base in Atlanta, certain that the 13.30 territory would be revisited. Yet the season passed and he couldn't break 13.50, again just missing out on finals at the World Indoors in Lisbon and outdoors in Edmonton.

"I felt at the time I was struggling. And it was very frustrating. But in hindsight it was still only a year or so after major surgery, and wasn't a bad consolidation. And when I sit down now and think about now I was very close to getting another breakthrough."

So into last year and high hopes once again. He made the final at the European Indoor championships in Vienna and started his outdoor season with a 13.52 run - by far his most encouraging season opener so far. Then a small hamstring tear when warming up for the European Cup spelled disaster.

"It started with the hamstring. And then the other hamstring. Then the groin. Quad. Hip. I went to the Europeans in Munich knowing the writing was on the wall, and the season was done.

"Right then I knew I needed a break. I'd been on the go 10 years non-stop since being a junior. I had to give the body a rest. And I just couldn't face into another winter's training anyway."

On top of that there was his financial situation. Four years of being a full-time athlete had left him in serious debt. So he threw the spikes into the wardrobe and worked through the winter.

"I know when I took that break that people around me thought that was it. But that never crossed my mind. Taking the time off was in fact part of the plan to get back to the very top. And after Christmas when the indoor season started up again I was itching to get back.

"But it has taken a while to get fully back. I think of hurdling sometimes as a golf swing, in that timing and rhythm is so important. And that has deserted me a little. And to be honest, deep down, I have debated if I should even go to Paris. I mean I don't like going to major championships when I'm not at my best.

"The truth is I'm not motivated by the chance to represent Ireland. I want to go to championships like this to make the final, and push for a medal. But I also have to think about what's important for next year. Competing in Paris is part of that. And then it's all out for the next 12 months to get ready for Athens."

Coghlan knows too that no matter what happens next year he always has an Ivy League degree from Yale University in his back pocket. His old room-mate from college exemplifies the opportunities, and now works for HBO on such masterstrokes as The Sopranos.

"To be honest it's my room-mate who always makes me appreciate what I'm doing. And is always jealous of my lifestyle." Another reason perhaps to keep going.