SARAH Claxton is ready to do the Italian Job.

Colchester’s hurdling star is in Turin today looking to bring medal glory back to her home town as part of the Great Britain team at the European Indoor Athletics Championships.

The 29-year-old Colchester and Tendring Athletic Club life member will be lining up alongside some the continent’s finest athletes in the 60 metre hurdles and headed out in confident mood earlier this week after her appearance in the Olympic 100m hurdles finla in Beijing last August.

Claxton will be going in the heats of the women’s event at 8.45am (British time) today, with the semi-finals at 2.45pm and the final due to take place at 5.40pm.

If everything goes according to plan, it could be one of the biggest days of Claxton’s athletics career so far and she believes she is capable of running a time that will capture a medal.

Speaking to the Gazette ahead of jetting out to Italy, Claxton said: “My training has gone well since my selection was confirmed and I’m all ready for the big day.

“I have worked on my start as it is such an important part of the 60 metre hurdles.

“It was nothing too much, but I felt I needed to do some work after the Grand Prix event in Birmingham two weeks ago.

“It was just some fine details really and I’m happy with it now.

“I’m feeling really good about the championships and just like at the Olympics, I’m looking to make it through each round and see where it takes me.

“After my experiences at the Olympics in Beijing, I do feel a lot more confident than when I have gone into other major championships.

“I’m drawing the confidence from appearing in the Olympic final, but I don’t want to say anything about where I think I can finish.

“I am definitely aiming for a medal, though, that is what I’m going for.

“I think the gold medal will be won with a run between 7.8 and 7.9 seconds and I will have to go sub-eight seconds just for a bronze, but I know I can do that.”

Claxton felt her biggest threats would come from form runners Josephine Onyia of Spain and Eline Berings of Belarus, who have run 7.95 seconds and 7.97 seconds respectively already this year.

The Colchester athlete’s personal best, which is also the British indoor record, is the 7.96 seconds that she ran in 2005 and her season’s best time is 8.06 seconds, run in Glasgow in January.

Since that run, though, her progress has been interrupted by a back injury and she has been unable to better her time in competitive action, however, Claxton added she had made a complete recovery and was feeling fully fit for the big event in Italy.