It was the phone call that Jenny Meadows hopes will lead to her derailing “The Maputo Express” as she eyes her long-term goal of middle-distance alchemy. The Wigan runner called Dame Kelly Holmes this week to get the inside track on taking on the legendary Maria Mutola. “I just thought that if Kelly could give me an extra 1 per cent then it would help,” Meadows said as she prepared for the 800 metres heats at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia on Friday.

“I ran against Mutola in Stockholm a fortnight ago and she has an aura about her. With all the other girls, even the top Russians, I thought, ‘I can give you a race.' But she has something different. I wanted to know what went through Kelly's mind when she came down the straight to beat her at the Athens Olympics [in 2004]. How did she do that? What was she thinking?”

Mutola is the seven-times world indoor champion, but Meadows is in such rich form that she is an outside medal chance in Valencia. She knows that she will have to run a personal best, but said: “I think I'm in 1:58 shape and feel there are a lot of weaknesses to work on. That means I think I could run 1:56 eventually, which would normally guarantee you a medal. I would love to beat Mutola once before she retires.”

The rivalry between Britain's 800 metres women has been a motivating factor for Meadows. She has had the edge over Marilyn Okoro this season and was angry when originally omitted from the team for last year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Becky Lyne got the nod ahead of her but then pulled out.

“I took it quite personally because I'd done everything asked of me and I felt bitter about it,” Meadows said. When she did get her belated call-up, Meadows went to her first significant outdoor championship and set a personal best of 1min 59.39sec.

Now, after her phone call to Holmes, Mutola's former training partner, she said that she will be

“gutted” if she does not reach the final in Valencia and believes that a medal is a possibility. The Olympic final is another goal.

In the meantime, the Dwain Chambers saga continues to dominate, but Meadows said that there would be no problem with having the convicted drugs cheat in the Great Britain team.

“I think it's been blown out of proportion,” she said. “I don't know why there has been such a big impact over other athletes who have come back. He was a very good sprinter who got tempted the wrong way, but he was young and now he's trying to get back.

“I think it's the interview he did [when he suggested many gold medal-winners were on drugs] that did it, but I'm sure he'd say things differently if he had the chance again.”