ELAINE O’NEILL insists her London 2012 Olympic dream is alive and kicking despite enduring an injury-hit year to forget.

O’Neill looked in the box seat to launch a London qualification bid at the back end of 2010 when she forced her way into the Commonwealth Games final in Delhi, wearing the red of Wales.

With the paucity of top-class 200m runners in the UK – GB had just one female representative in the discipline at the World Championships in Daegu in September – O’Neill has designs on consolidating her Indian breakthrough this summer.

However a combination of knee surgery and an Achilles tendon injury eventually restricted the 2-year-old to just five competitive appearances.

As a result O’Neill was unable to make the plane for the European Under-23 Championships in Kaunas or launch a big, albeit speculative, challenge to be part of the World Championships

in South Korea.

But despite enduring a stop-start 12 months O’Neill is confident a tilt towards London 2012 qualification is far from beyond her.

“I’ve got my eyes firmly on the 2012 games next year,” said O’Neill – who benefits from the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes initiative – which provides her with a £1,000 of funding.

“I think if I stay injury free, work really hard and apply myself correctly in the next ten months then I could have a really good chance of making it and being at London 2012.

“It’s my big aim to be there next year because it is a massive opportunity and I may not get another chance to perform at home.

“If I work hard enough, I think I could be good enough to make it and that is definitely what I am going to be aiming for.”

With 2011 in essence a right off for O’Neill she admits it will be the memories of her adventures a year previously that will spur her on.

As well as her Commonwealth Games adventure in 2010 O’Neill also jetted off to Barcelona earlier in the year as part of GB’s European Championship relay squad.

And while she ultimately wasn’t given the nod to take to the track O’Neill insists it is those memories that helped in the dark days of her injury and in the equally gloomy mornings she faces on the track this winter.

“Barcelona was a really valuable experience,” added O’Neill. “Just to see how relaxed all the big stars are before a race or an event, really taught me a lot and helped me a lot for the

future.

“Watching the way they conducted themselves when they weren’t racing, how they behaved in preparing for the event really helped me.

“When you see these top athletes not getting too psyched up and not let the occasion get the better of them, it rubs off on you and it

“The whole thing was probably the best thing I’ve done in athletics."

Lloyds TSB Local Heroes, in partnership with SportsAid, provides support and funding to 344 emerging athletes all the way to London 2012 and beyond.  Follow the future stars of

TeamGB and ParalympicsGB at: www.lloydstsb.com/localheroes

© Sportsbeat 2011