Olympic gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown (right) and her husband Omar.- Photos by Gordon Williams

WINTER GARDENS, Florida:

It is a cool mid-January after-noon when Veronica Campbell-Brown, husband Omar at her side, slips into a book store here. She's running a few minutes behind schedule.

"So sorry I'm late," Jamaica's reigning World and Olympic sprint champion says with an apologetic smile and a handshake.

Dressed in a zipped-up jacket, with hugging jeans tucked inside suede boots, Campbell-Brown takes a quick second to rub the cold from her hands. But she cannot shake the surprise of noticing that a familiar face is already present.

"How did you get here so soon?" she asks her longtime coach, Lance Brauman.

Price of being slow

It's not often Campbell-Brown is beaten to a spot she plans to be. In her job, being late, even by the tiniest margin, can be costly.

Ask American Lauryn Williams. She was, in the 100 metres at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics. It proved the difference between the Jamaican's gold medal and her silver, although both clocked the same time of 11.01 seconds.

Or check Williams's compatriot Allyson Felix. She was punished into second place at consecutive Olympic Games by Campbell-Brown for not being quick enough around the turn in the 200 metres.

The Trelawny native, too, knows the price of being a step slow. A sub-par start at the national trials erased her chance to run the 100 metres at the 2008 Olympics. Her time of 10.87 seconds was good, the same as Sherone Simpson's, but Campbell-Brown's placing was not. Simpson nipped her for the third and final qualifying spot on Jamaica's team to Beijing, China.

Vanishing dream

Campbell-Brown would win all her remaining races in the event for 2008, but on that evening in Kingston, there was no do-over.

Her dream of a 2008 Olympic double vanished in the blur of a photo finish. Yet, Campbell-Brown, who went on to win the 200 metres in Beijing, has long shrugged off that disappointment. She has no real urge to rehash what might have been.

"The 100 metres? I did not run that race at the Olympics," she says now of the final won convincingly by Shelly-Ann Fraser, with teammates Simpson and Kerron Stewart runners-up. "I don't think it is necessary for me to go back and say 'If I was in the race, I would do that' ".

"She was fourth on that day (at the trials)," said Brauman in a matter-of-fact tone echoing Campbell-Brown's, "and had to accept it."

So now, with this summer's World Championships looming, Campbell-Brown is making sure her preparations are on track.

Coach Launcelot Brauman

Being late again is not an option. At stake in Berlin, Germany is the prestigious sprint double. As champion in 2007, Campbell-Brown automatically qualifies for the 100 metres. But, despite being two-time Olympic queen in the 200, she must still compete in the June trials to make Jamaica's team in that event.

Brauman claims Campbell-Brown's training may already be ahead of its pace in 2008, when she lost twice - once in each sprint - all year. She's working on building strength. The start of her race, well known as its weakest phase, is also getting special attention at her Florida training base.

Brauman hinted that Campbell-Brown will probably race at some small US meets in April. In addition to the trials, locals may also get to see her run at the Jamaica International Invitational in early May. Her 2009 race schedule, however, is still being decided.

Off the track, Campbell-Brown said she's settled. It's been more than a year since she married high school sweetheart Omar Brown, a 2006 Commonwealth Games 200 metres gold medallist recovering from injury. He hopes to make Jamaica's team to Berlin as well.

On-line publication

Campbell-Brown has her own website and has written a book, titled " Better You, Inspirations for Life's Journeys. The on-line publication contains writings she hopes will help others overcome difficulties.

"Over the years, I have been a big collector of anything spiritual and inspirational - quotes and poems," Campbell-Brown explained. "I wrote a few on my own and sometime last year, while I was in Greece, I read a few of the poems to my manager's wife. She was impressed by it, she went ahead and read a few to a couple of my teammates and they liked it. So, she was like 'I think you should try and put this into a book.' I took her advice."

That doesn't mean Campbell-Brown's focus has strayed from the immediate prize.

When Brauman revealed that she helped choose the name for his newborn daughter, she laughed, dismissing any suggestion she will bow to the maternal instinct anytime soon.

Right now, life for the Browns is good. Campbell-Brown pays keen interest to her husband's wellbeing. She pops up from her chair to demonstrate the way his ankle injury affected his running technique and damaged his hamstring, shutting down his season after the Jamaica trials last year.

She also knows he has difficulty training consistently due to the pain caused by scar tissue from his September surgery to repair the injury. The attention works both ways.

"Veronica has been supporting me all over the years," Brown said. "We motivate each other."

"We feed off each other's energy," added Campbell-Brown. "So my success is Omar's success. Omar's success is my success. We support each other 100 percent and that's just how we've been since high school."

The priorities are set. The time for expanding their family will come - just not right now.

"We're still young, we're having fun," the 26-year-old wife said with a giggle. "We do want to have children of our own, but we have a lot of things that we have to make sure that is in order for us. Right now, our career is very important and whenever children come you've got to be ready. It wouldn't be our thing to have kids and still running."

EYE ON LONDON

So, it is no surprise that Campbell-Brown is eyeing the London Olympics in 2012. It will be her fourth Games, but not necessarily her last.

She has won titles at all international levels since a junior, but brushes aside the notion that chasing the so-far elusive Olympic 100 metres title is all-consuming.

"I'm not obsessed," she said, "but if it is in my destiny for me to get the gold medal in the 100 metres I will."

Campbell-Brown will be 30 when the starter's gun goes off at the London Games. She will not be young and inexperienced then, but neither will she be past her prime, according to Brauman. The timing should be just about right for another run at glory.

"Most women sprinters don't hit their peak until they are 28 or 30 anyhow," the coach said. "She's only 26. There's a lot of fast times for her to still run. In my opinion she's not reached her peak yet."

Like Merlene Ottey, her idol in the sport who was a world-class performer even into her 40s, Campbell-Brown avoids a timetable to cap her career. She prefers to wait for her body and the stopwatch to tell her when to quit.

"I can never know what the future holds," she said. "If 2016, which would be the Olympics after 2012, if I'm running fast and competing among the best in the world and still running fast, I don't know. I'll just have to see."

By then, Campbell-Brown promised, the decision will arrive right on time.