London 2012 Olympics: Jessica Ennis has nothing to fear but must ignore hype ...

“Dealing with what’s going on in this country is going to be more of an issue than it being her first Olympics. It’s going to be all about getting her mind in the right place, but I know she’ll cope with the pressure.”

The meeting between the pair has a prosaic explanation. Both work with Aviva - Ennis actually began her athletics career in the Aviva Startrack coaching programme - and both were at the company’s City of London HQ for a day of media appearances and autograph-signing.

But Ennis, 25, is hoping the connection with Gunnell will run a lot deeper when, all being well, she joins her in the elite band of British female track and female athletes to have made it to the top tier of the Olympics medals podium.

The problem, as Ennis admits, is that her success in major championships and her high media profile has left many people believing that she need only turn up at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to have the gold medal hung around her neck.

“I’m obviously on Twitter, and people are always sending me messages about the Olympics, or I bump into people and they say things like, ‘We’ve got tickets to watch you win gold’,” she said.

“It’s as if I’ve already got that medal around my neck. It’s nice in a sense that a lot of people are interested because of the home Olympics but they might not know a lot about the sport and actually how hard it is to win a medal.”

Gunnell, 44, did not have the pressure of being the overwhelming favourite before she triumphed in Barcelona, but she says the expectation of outsiders is ultimately irrelevant. What matters most are athletes’ expectations of themselves.

“I may not have been the favourite in ’92 but I always knew I was going to win that gold medal,” she said. “It’s all about how you perceive yourself rather than how others perceive you.

“I didn’t go into it thinking I was in with a chance of winning a medal. I went in knowing I was going to get that medal.

Lim Lip Eng: Arrested in hotel room for wearing Bersih t-shirts

To enjoy nature in all its splendour. The previous week had been hectic, what with the Bersih 2.0 rally and the numerous controversies that cropped up, so it would have been a well-deserved holiday for three aides to Seputeh MP and DAP national organising secretary Teresa Kok. Little did they know that the Bersih 2.0 stigma would continue to trail them all the way to the idyllic hill resort town. Teh said they adjourned to the girls' hotel room to hang out after dinner and visiting the night market, when a hotel employee knocked on their door about 12.45am. "They asked us to change rooms because a family was staying next door and we may have been a bit noisy,” he said. "By that time, I think he saw us wearing Bersih T-shirts in the room. After we changed rooms, about 10 minutes later someone started knocking loudly on our door.” When they opened the door, at least 13 people who were waiting outside had barged into their room without identifying themselves, Teh said. "I asked them who they were, and one of them showed his ID, a chief inspector Basar Safar. He said the hotel management had called the police to tell them there was a group of people wearing Bersih T-shirts." Teh said Basar had asked the group to follow the police back to The group had initially argued against going to the police station, but had little choice as all their MyKads were being held by a female officer, who told them they would only get the documents back at the station, said Teh. Lan said they were also told to ride in the police car to the station, where they were then made to wait for two hours without any instructions after reaching there at 1am. "They just made us wait at a side hall, where there were a few sofas. We waited and did nothing. We thought they wanted to take our statements, but they did nothing. "By 3am, the same chief inspector came and told us we were free to go. We asked if we had anything to sign, and he said no and even returned our T-shirts to us. He told us, 'you pakailah sesuka hati kamu' (wear it however you wish).” The ordeal however did not end there, as they had to wait at least another half-hour for the officers to send them back to the hotel, fighting back the chilly night air in just T-shirts and shorts, Lan added. Teh said the police action was sheer injustice and an invasion of their privacy, stressing that nowhere in the law does it state that the Bersih 2.0 T-shirt is illegal.

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