It is so important to have fun."The most obvious manifestation of this personal priority is Baulch's hair, which, in the space of the last five years has been bleached and styled relentlessly. "Two years ago I had raced a lot more beforehand and I felt people were putting pressure on me to win. This year I am a lot more relaxed and ready to enjoy myself."Enjoyment is something Baulch always manages to communicate when he appears on or around a track. It is a crucial part of what he does."A lot of athletes at this level make everything seem so serious," he explains. "At the end of the day, they have all started in the sport because they love running or jumping or throwing But once they get good at it they forget that.

Starting on Friday, at the IAAD World Indoor Championships in Maebashi, Japan, he seeks to improve upon the silver medal he won two years ago in Paris.At the age of 25, Baulch is still trying to achieve the level of consistency which has established his Welsh colleague, old rival and near-contemporary Iwan Thomas as Britain's No 1 400m runner.So far this season his indoor record could not have been better - four consecutive wins on the European circuit, including one over the man who beat him to gold in Paris, Sunday Bada of Nigeria."I feel totally differently about these championships," he said. The object of so much teen and pre-teen affection would be the perfect signing for Gazza's agent, Mel Stein, who has moved into athletics recently by taking on young talents such as sprinter, Jason Gardener, and heart- throb high jumper, Ben Challenger. But Baulch is already spoken for - a member of the Nuff Respect agency jointly set up by Colin Jackson and Linford Christie and a fully paid up member of Team Linford, the training group directed by the former Olympic 100 metres champion.Baulch has referred to Christie as "the big daddy coach", and, like the newly established European 100m champion Darren Campbell, he has benefited from the paternalistic approach of one of Britain's greatest athletes.What Baulch is attempting to do now is to come fully of age as he seeks his first big individual title at his specialist distance of 400 metres. THEY USED to scream for Roger Black Now they scream for Jamie Baulch. Wacky hair, cheeky grin, little legs going nineteen to the dozen Cute.

Findlay said he had spoken to Hooper recently and was given no indication when he would be returning to the Caribbean.The West Indies squad will be cut to 12 and a vice-captain named later in the week.Five of the squad - batsmen Suruj Ragoonath, Dave Joseph and Lincoln Roberts along with fast bowlers Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore have not played Test cricket.WEST INDIES (from): B C Lara (capt), S L Campbell, S Ragoonath, D R E Joseph, J C Adams, R I C Holder, P V Simmons, L A Roberts, R T Jacobs, C A Walsh, C E L Ambrose, M Dillon, R D King, P T Collins, C Collymore.. "It's going to be tough but playing in Trinidad has been very good to West Indian cricket in the past," he said.Lara is waiting for the results of a scan taken to determine the damage done to his right wrist in South Africa but is confident he will be fit.Vice-captain Carl Hooper was unavailable for selection because he is in Australia looking after his new-born son, who is ill. The line-up includes the two recently injured bowlers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, and four other fast bowlers, Merv Dillon, Reon King, Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore. The chairman of selectors, Michael Findlay, said both bowlers had been passed fit despite not having played a competitive match since returning from the South Africa tour last month.After losing the Test series 5-0 in South Africa, the West Indies captain, Brian Lara, admitted his home ground, the Queen's Park Oval, could be just the place to get a flying start against Australia. THE WEST INDIES selectors named six fast bowlers in a 15-man squad to play Australia in the first Test beginning in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Friday as they strive to recover from their disastrous tour of South Africa.

"A slightly outside chance but a better chance than last year. I will know very early on whether the car is good enough."We are at Brackley, near Silverstone, where the new car has been rigorously tested against simulated race conditions in the Jordan wind tunnel It is early morning. Can he do it again? And if so, is he in with a serious shout of winning the championship, which gets off the grid in Melbourne on Sunday? "I think we have a chance," he says, guardedly. Has he ever given vent to his need, as it were, during a race? We both laugh "I know drivers who do," he says "I couldn't do that, I just couldn't But it's actually quite common." So there we are. So you drink mineral drinks and carbohydrate drinks, and are quite literally bursting for a pee by the time you get to the car. That's why you see drivers jumping over the wall at the start of a race.