BMX ace Liam Phillips is confident of Olympic success after a crash threatened to wreck his London 2012 dream.
The 23-year-old from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, pictured, won a time-trial silver medal at May's BMX World Championships in Birmingham, but a day later in the super cross Olympic event tumbled over his handlebars and suffered a fractured collarbone.
The injury cast doubt on his participation in the Olympic BMX event, which begins on August 8, but Phillips was nonetheless confirmed in the Great Britain team when the cycling squad was announced last week.
Phillips had just one pre-scheduled week off after the World Championships and has been working on the stationary bike to retain his fitness – and hopefully his form.
"My legs aren't going anywhere," Phillips, for whom London will be his second Games, told Press Association Sport.
"If anything I'm going to go into competition in even better form than I was for the worlds.
"It's just a case of getting the shoulder healed properly and getting back on the bike.
"If I can get myself back in the shape that I was in at the World Championships that's all that I can ask and I'll be there or thereabouts.
"That's the biggest task, finding that form. I don't feel I need to go over and above that form in Birmingham.
"Getting back to that level is what's expected and is going to put me right up there with the group that are going to be challenging for medals. I'm confident that I have enough time."
One of the compelling elements of BMX is the prospect of crashes. Spectators relish it and, while riders do not, Phillips understands the attraction.
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