BOLTON badminton international is off to Sydney to compete in the Olympics and in the first of a regular series of articles for the BEN he looks ahead to the challenge. THIS last week, prior to leaving for Sydney, has been extremely hard, and not just the fact my flat mate had his Lotus stolen along with my house keys, or because of the amount of training I have been undergoing to prepare for the Millennium Olympic games.

It is the fact I will be away from my home for around five weeks, which means a lot of organising and planning, making sure everything is in order for my return from Oz.

The last thing I need is to find bailiffs on my doorstep as soon as I arrive home, or an empty house!

Also, you have the unparalleled amount of media attention you get prior to the games, which really does bring home the reality of how big the Olympics are.

With this going on, there is little or no time to get excited, but as I am now packing my bags, the reality of it all is creeping in. And I am sure that as soon as I get on the plane to Oz, all the hard days training and swearing (at the coach most of the time) will be a thing of the past, on my quest for success.

The team morale is high at the moment, and this is down to the very professional approach our Olympic team manager has taken. He has enabled the whole team to prepare as well as possible, with a support team second to none. We are going out to the games with a team of 12 competitors and 6 support staff.

The support staff consist of; a team manager, Lars Sologub; a video man and game analyst, Steve Evans; a chartered phsyio, Louise Fawcett; and three specialist coaches, Andy Wood (doubles), Chris Rees (singles) and John Quinn (singles and doubles).

The competitors are; Myself, Simon Archer, Julian Robertson, Nathan Robertson minus 1 Lotus, Peter Knowles and Richard Vaughan, Jo Goode, Jo Davies, Sarah Hardacre, Donna Kellogg, Kelly Morgan and Julia Mann. Bolton badminton international CHRIS HUNT reports on his preparations for the Sydney Olympics.

Chris Hunt