Sarah Claxton is ready to bounce back to full fitness and book her place in Great Britain’s team at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The 29-year-old Colchester sprint hurdler has had the early part of her outdoor season blighted by an Achilles injury, but she is back on track now and looking to go even better than the success she had at last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

She has been disappointed with the three races she has had so far this year, with a best time of 13.38 seconds – more than half a second slower than her personal best over 100 metres – however, she is not reading anything into those performances because of the niggling injury.

She said: “I had three races in Norway, Poland and the Czech Republic, but I’m not counting the times because I didn’t run well with the injury to my Achilles.

“I had an injection to settle the ankle down and I have had a week off so I’m feeling fine now and have been getting back to sprinting this week.

“My warm weather training went well in America at the end of the winter, but the injury came about when I hit the first hurdle hard in a race and landed on that side.

“The joint was inflamed, but I kept going and that made it worse so it has set me back from where I would like to be.

“I did keep my fitness going, though, as I was able to get to the gym and go on my bike, so I reckon I’m probably about 90 per cent of full fitness.

“My next race is in Lille in France on June 30 and I’m hoping for at least another before the World Championship trials in Birmingham in July.

“I’ve only run a best of 13.38 seconds so far, but I’m not counting that and I think the race in Lille will be the first real test of where I’m at.

“I need to run 12.9 seconds to qualify for the World Championships and I would rather get that time before the trials.”

Claxton believes she now has the experience to really perform to the highest level on world athletics’ biggest stages, having made it through to finals at her last two major tournaments.

She was delighted with her eighth-place finish in the 100m hurdles at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, but was less pleased to only match that finish in the 60-metres final of the European Indoor Championships in Turin in February after completely dominating the heats and semi-finals.

However, she has picked up valuable experience from both those events and says the lessons she has learned can propel her to further glory.

She added: “After the Olympics and the European Indoors, I showed I can progress through the rounds to qualify for major finals.

“I’ve learned to take each round as it comes and not think about medals.

“I think that was my mistake in Turin as I got ahead of myself.

“I was looking at a medal, when I just needed to concentrate on what I had to do.

“I need to be concentrating on the execution of each race as it comes.”