John Jackson is adamant next year’s Winter Olympics will be upon him faster than he knows it ahead of the final bobsleigh World Cup round of the season at the Games venue in Sochi.
Britain’s No.1 pilot is currently enjoying his finest season to date and arrived in Russia days after finishing an impressive fifth in the four-man at the World Championships in St Moritz.
Had Jackson medalled it would have been Britain’s first in the four-man at the World Championships for 74 years, Frederick McEvoy, the 1937 and 1938 champion, the last person to do so with silver in 1939.
As it was Jackson, who alongside Stuart Benson, Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon sat third heading into the final run, were just seven hundredths of a second off a bronze medal in fifth.
Now they are in Sochi for the Olympic test event and ninth and final World Cup round of the season and Jackson, who has best finish of fifth from Whistler in November, feels the Games are approaching at pace.
“It certainly comes around a lot quicker than you think,” said Jackson, who represented Britain at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and will compete in the four-man and two-man in Sochi.
“We are three years into the Olympic cycle and soon it will be summer and then we’ll have the selection races and be back into the World Cups.
“Next year the focus will be the same as everyone else’s and being in the best shape you can be. We will have a similar plan for summer training and will work with our strength and conditioning coaches.
“We know where we want to improve coming into the next one and we need to because it is Olympic year. It isn’t the time to try this and try that, we want to be hitting the World Cups hard.
“I think this Olympic cycle compared to the last has been massively different certainly for myself as I was self-funded before.
“The differences now that I have got funding means I have become a better athlete and as a whole we are starting to see the benefits from that, we are better athletes and more consistent.”
© Sportsbeat 2013