NEWPORT sprinter Christian Malcolm flies out to South Africa today to start his preparations for the Athens Olympics.

Malcolm will be warm weather training in a specialist sprinting base near Cape Town with fellow Great Britain star Mark Lewis-Francis.

The 200m ace is expected to spend three weeks in South Africa before returning to Wales on January 30 in time for the indoor season.

With his coach Jock Anderson, Malcolm will work on improving his speed and stamina. Malcolm has a gruelling indoor and outdoor season ahead of him, hopefully culminating in the Olympics in August.

And after a long break following last year's World Championships, Malcolm is looking forward to flying out to Cape Town to prepare for the forthcoming season.

He said: "I've been training properly for about the last six weeks after taking a longer than usual break. I just felt that I needed a bit of time off after the disappointment of the World Championships.

"And, surprisingly in view of how long I took off, I'm actually in quite good shape. I'm positive about the next few months and excited about 2004.

"Jock has been working me quite hard but the next three weeks gives us a chance to just get away from it all and work hard before the indoor season trials."

Anderson will aim to have his man ready for the World Indoor Trials in Sheffield in February so that he is in the team for the World Championships in Bucharest in March

With Malcolm being away until the end of this month the 200m flyer will miss the first major event of the season - the Norwich Union International in Glasgow.

A world select team has been added to the line-up for the event on January 24. The select team will join the Norwich Union GB side, Sweden, Russia and Italy.

The move raises the profile of the match and opens up the possibility of attracting some top American stars. Discussions are now under way with a number of major US names.

Ian Stewart, who is responsible for pulling together the field for the meeting, said: "Traditionally we have had a 'Euro Select' side in this meeting.

"But there has been a lot of interest from athletes from further field and giving them a means to compete in Glasgow can only benefit the meeting."

The International is the first event on the 2004 athletics calendar and provides the springboard for many of the sport's biggest names as they begin their Olympic Games build-up.