Simpson still confident about Beijing Olympics

(BEIJING, June 27) -- Jemma Simpson of Britain finished the 800m with a time of 2:00.37 at the Ciudad de Jerez athletics meeting in Spain this week. While her time would not qualify her for the 2008 Beijing Olympic, she ran her best time ever.

Simpson, the reigning UK champion in the Women's 800m, has won a place on the British squad for the prestigious 2007 Athletics World Championships in Japan. She has full confidence in running the 800m in under two minutes, which is necessary if she wants to qualify for the Olympics.

She is only second to the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, Hasna Banhassi, who ran a time of 1:59.29. "Race by race, I'm edging towards the Olympic qualification time," she said.

Simpson will take part in another athletics meet in either Milan or Madrid to build her way up to the GB Olympic trials in Birmingham from July 12 to 13, where she will go all out to try to secure a ticket for Beijing.

"My coach and I are confident that I can do it. I'm less than half a second away from my Olympic dream, and as the days go by I'm more and more confident that I'm going to live that dream," Simpson said.