A Birchfield Harrier, like his mother, the 23-year-old has been a man in form this summer. At the European Cup in Annecy three weeks ago he improved his personal best to 45.14sec in surging to victory ahead of Ingo Schultz, the world championship silver medallist. In Sheffield the following Sunday he scored another big win, beating Arvard Moncur, the world champion and leading Commonwealth Games contender from the Bahamas.This weekend Caines can afford to rest easy and avoid aggravating a niggling knee problem in the AAA Championships on home ground at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, secure in the knowledge that he will be granted the discretionary British team place in his event for the European Championships in Munich next month. His mother competed in the 1974 European Championships in Rome She reached the semi-finals. It proved to be her first and last appearance in a major championship.She became a Seventh Day Adventist and desisted from competing on Saturdays. She did break the British record for the 100m hurdles at an international match in Warsaw in June 1974, jointly clocking 13.0sec with Vernon, who had won the Commonwealth title in Christchurch six months previously. It is fair to say, though, that Thompson did not fulfil her potential, not least because of the competitive restriction she accepted as part of her religious faith.”Well, yes, it affected my running a great deal,” she said “You forget.. there weren’t as many races on Sundays back then Everything was geared to Saturdays A lot of things came into play I missed the Olympics in 1976 And then Daniel came along in 1979.

I got along with living.” Twenty three years later, Thompson is getting along with her life, relishing her son fulfilling his rich potential. An Olympic semi-finalist in 2000 and a winner at the world indoor championships in Lisbon last year, Caines has shown considerable mettle in fighting back from a stress fracture that kept him out of the world championships last summer. His mother is justly proud.”Yeah, I’m very happy for him,” she said “He seems to have got himself balanced He’s got a good mind. He’s blessed with great talent and hopefully he’ll develop to his full potential.” Caines is maximising his ability with the help of his father, Joe, a former junior international 400m runner, who guides him as coach, and of his mother, who assumed the role of his manager after races promised by an agent failed to materialise “It wasn’t something I went looking for,” she said. “It was just something that happened.” A barrister by profession, Caines’ mother and manager is happy to remain in the background “It’s Daniel who should be in the spotlight,” she said Which he will be, of course, when the Games begin..

With a name like Niobe Menendez, the athlete wearing No 453 in the opening event on the track in the European trials meeting yesterday might have been racing for a place in the Spanish team rather than the British squad that is being finalised in Birmingham this weekend. For some in the field, it was also a chance to sharpen up for the Commonwealth Games, which opens on Thursday week Menendez was one of them Not that she did much sharpening. After 50m she stepped off the track, suffering from a bowel problem. “I just couldn’t walk properly,” she said, “but I’m sure I’ll be all right for the Games.”In those Games in Manchester Menendez will be competing in the 20km walk as an English athlete “I am English,” she said “I was born in London My mother’s British My father, Luis, is Spanish He’s from Gijon. I have lived there, and in France.”Menendez, as it happens, has never even considered representing the land of her father.