Newport's European indoor 200m champion, Christian Malcolm, pictured, is relishing the opportunity of racing on home soil at tonight's Welsh Games.

Malcolm can't wait to perform in front of the crowd at Cardiff's Leckwith Stadium , saying: "The Games give all the Welsh athletes the opportunity of giving something back to the public.

"They are so supportive of us and it's important for as many Welsh athletes as possible to compete as a way of thanking them."

Malcolm, who has been in mixed form this season, will be looking to improve on last weekend's performance at the Norwich Union meeting at Sheffield.

There he finished a disappointing sixth in a time of 20.81sec.

He did, however, produce a blistering run in the 4x100m relay to help the Welsh team finish second.

And it is this inconsistent form that Malcolm sees as his main problem going into the Welsh Games and the Commonwealth Games.

He said: "My form's been a bit up and down this season, I need more races to help me get my consistency up.

"I've been both injured and ill this season so that has held me back a little, but after the Welsh Games and the European qualifiers later in the week I should be back to my best."

The 23-year-old is also looking forward to running against some excellent competitors tonight, including Jerome Young, who is stepping down a distance.

Young has twice been the American 400m champion, in 1998 and 1999, and was a member of the 4x400 team which broke the world record in New York.

He was also part of the team that took Olympic gold in Sydney.

Malcolm said: "It's good to be competing against people like Young. He's a good runner but I'd much prefer to be racing against people of his calibre as it's a good way to judge what my form is like."

The ex-Hartridge Comprehensive School pupil is keen, however, to play down Wales' chances of bringing home medals from the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

He said: "We feel we've got the potential to do well and confidence is high, but anything can happen.

"We'll give it our best shot and if we all come back with personal best times then we've done as well as we can.

"People don't seem to realise that there are lots of good competitors and it won't be easy."