Abi won't get flustered

Abi Oyepitan is determined not to crack under pressure when she makes a special piece of British sprinting history in tonight's Olympic 200metres final.

Competing at her first Olympics, the 24-yearold will become the British women to contest a final over the distance since Kathy Cook finished fourth at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Britain's male sprinters have regularly picked up medals over 200m in the last two decades. But after getting into Olympic finals in the 1960s and at the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Games, British women have rarely made an impression in the sprints.

The final, the climax of tonight's action at the Olympic Stadium, will be by far the biggest race of the London athlete's career. She has produced the best running of her life on the way to the final and said: "I cannot imagine what it is going to be like because I have never been there. But I'm going to be relaxed now. I was nervous going through all the rounds but I think I am going to enjoy it more than anything else."

Last night she finished second in her semifinal in 22.56 seconds, just 0.06sec outside of the personal best she set in the first round.

The recipe for success had been a good night's sleep and a bath. She said: "I slept really well, had a nice bath and hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. I probably won't sleep at all though because it's the Olympic final but I don't care."

Darren Campbell's place in tonight's men's 200m semi-finals looks in doubt, however, after the silver medallist from the 2000 Games pulled up at the end of last night's secondround heats, holding his left leg. Campbell has been suffering with a hamstring problem and grabbed his leg after finishing fourth in his heat in 20.59sec.

He went through as the slowest qualifier despite equalling his season's best and has been drawn in lane one for the semi-final. Christian Malcolm is also through after clocking 20.56. Malcolm, who was hospitalised for nine days earlier this month with a kidney problem, said: "Two weeks ago I was told I wouldn't be running here but I made a good recovery and I've got to look on the up side that my health is important."

Chris Tomlinson produced a brilliant jump of 8.23m to qualify automatically for the long jump final. But Chris Rawlinson finished last in his 400m hurdles semi-final in agony after crashing into the first hurdle.