Johannesburg — THE world's No1 800m runner, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, intends to do things differently when he gets to the Beijing Olympics later in the year.

Mulaudzi, who has a personal best time of 1:42,89s -- clocked in Brussels in 2003 -- is the strongest 800m runner around but he has trouble winning at major meetings.

He won silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and gold at the International Association of Athletics Federations' World Athletics finals in 2006. He is also a Commonwealth Games gold medallist (2002) but has struggled since becoming world No1.

"My problem is that I have been sucked into running other people's races," he said yesterday, at an event to publicise this Friday's Yellow Pages Series meeting in Germiston.

"People know I like a fast race and so they keep the pace slow and in the past I have become confused and have been thrown off my stride.

"In the early days, when I was an unknown, it was not a problem. But now everyone knows who I am and they plan their races to stop me."

However, Mulaudzi said he was older -- at the ripe old age of 27 -- and wiser now: "I have more experience and have learnt that I have to focus on running my own race, and not worry about what the others are doing. That will be my approach in Beijing."

Mulaudzi represents SA's strongest chance for a gold medal in Beijing and says he feels the pressure. "But being No1 in this event has taught me to deal with the pressure," he said.

Sprinter Geraldine Pillay has given herself a more immediate goal -- to break Yvette de Klerk's 11:06 in the 100m, a national record which has lasted 18 years.

De Klerk set the record at the same Germiston track which will host Friday night's meeting, and Pillay is hoping it will bring her good luck. "It's a fast track and there should be good times," said Pillay, who spent time last year training in Jamaica and, according to Wilf Daniels, Athletics SA (ASA) high performance project co-ordinator, it has done the lanky athlete the world of good.

Yet Pillay is fearful of the Chinese at the Olympics. "I think this is going to be a very Asian Games," she said. "They are producing athletes out of nowhere and they have been hiding their top people. We went to Japan for a meeting and they sent a second-best team.

"I don't know where they are hiding and what they are doing, but I think we are going to see a lot of them in Beijing. I think they could give the US a good go." Pillay has a personal best of 11:07 in the 100m and 22:78 in the 200m. She has not decided yet whether she will run both at the Beijing Games. "I will make that call closer to the time," she said.

Asked what she thought she would have to do to get into the 100m finals in Beijing, she said: "I think if you can maintain 11:10 or so in the heats it should be enough to get into the finals."

Pillay has returned to SA from Jamaica "to get the most possible support from ASA for my buildup, but I will still be training according to the programme I was given by my coach in Jamaica".

LJ van Zyl, one of the best hopes for 400m hurdles success, is hoping to clock an Olympic A qualifying time (49:20) in Germiston and is hoping the other Olympic candidates, Ockert Cilliers, Ter de Villiers, Pieter Koekemoer and Alwyn Myburgh qualify too "but with me first, of course".

Van Zyl already has a personal best time of 48:05 and won Commonwealth Games gold in 2006.

Daniels said ASA was negotiating with Sascoc, the Olympic parent body in SA, to allow athletes until the middle of July to get their qualifying standards to make the Games, "but the decision is up to them".

Friday night's race in Germiston will be the fourth in the series, and Pillay is running for the first time. "I will also run at the next three meetings and that will take me perfectly into the South African Senior Track and Field championships in Stellenbosch," she said.

There will be a 12-week window after the South African nationals in March, during which SA's Olympic hopefuls will not be allowed to compete.

"In the past our athletes have gone overseas to compete on the grand prix circuit and they have run themselves to pieces. We don't want that happening this time," said Daniels.