Adam Gemili, the 18-year-old British sprinter, may skip the Olympics for fear competing at the Games may harm his development.

Gemili ran a time of 10.08 seconds at the Sparkassen Gala in Regensburg, Germany this weekend, putting him at the top of the British rankings and securing the Olympic A standard.

But his coach, Michael Afilaka, said Gemili was still aiming for the World Junior Championships in Barcelona in July rather than the London Games.

Competing in both as it stands presents some difficulty as the trials are less than a week apart.

"If there is leeway to get us to the Olympics we'll consider it, but right now the aim is stick to going to the World Juniors," said Afilaka.

"The management of our junior guys is something I've been really concerned about.

"We don't manage them very well and we do too much too soon."

Gemili, a former footballer who spent time in Chelsea's youth set-up, has improevd dramatically since choosing to concentrate on athletics earlier this year.

The teenager seemed keener than his coach on competing in London.

"My focus so far has been the World Juniors but following this my coach and I will definitely be sitting down to discuss options," he said. "It's a great opportunity and a nice dilemma to have."

Gemili, who won silver at last year's European Junior Championships in Estonia, is the second Briton to achieve the A standard of 10.18 this year after James Dasaolu, meaning the likes of Dwain Chambers could have their work cut out to make the team.

Dasaolu, 24, ran exactly 10.18 in France last month.

Gemili added: "It feels really good to have run the A standard, but more so to be a junior and have done the time. I hope it shows other juniors what can be done and not just to think only seniors can do that, they can compete at that level too."

n Australia's pugnacious hurdler Sally Pearson holds the world championship, the year's best time and the nation's hopes on her broad shoulders as she seeks to become her country's first track champion since Cathy Freeman's triumph at the Sydney 2000 Games.

Having won 15 out of 16 of her 100m hurdles races last year to win the IAAF's athlete of the year, the blonde 25-year-old is hot favourite to win gold in London.

Australia's hunger for Olympic track and field success is prodigious but rarely sated in recent decades, with Steve Hooker's pole vault gold the only athletics title won by the sports-mad country at the Beijing Games.

Pearson thrashed the competition to win the world title at Daegu last year with a time of 12.28 seconds, the fourth fastest on record for a woman. In her very first run at the Melbourne Track Classic in March this year, she posted a quick time of 12.49 seconds in a downpour on a track that had absorbed a day's rain. The time stands as the year's best mark, superior to the 12.54 seconds that won American Dawn Harper gold in Beijing.

"I'm going to stay grounded and make sure that I look after my body and stay fit and uninjured. That's just the key, I think, to get me on top of that podium," she said .

n The former world cycling champion Thor Hushovd of Norway, who is expected to be one of Briton Mark Cavendish's chief rivals in the Olympic road race, will miss next month's Tour de France because he is not fit enough for a three-week race.