There will be some nervous people in the Olympic Stadium in Athens tomorrow morning -- none more so than Angela Whelan.

Who can blame her? After all, it's not every day you get to watch your son competing at the world's greatest sporting event.

When Oxford's Nathan Douglas makes his bid to qualify from the heats of the triple jump tomorrow, his mum admits she will be beside herself with nerves, along with his sisters Kayley and Lauren.

Let's hope that Nathan can keep his nerves under control for the biggest day of his sporting life and that Angela isn't too uptight to experience another justified emotion -- pride in a young man who is a credit to her.

Modern athletics have been tarnished far too often by drug-fuelled athletes claiming medals under false pretences. Sadly, there have been some British examples of this too.

Nathan will set off on his Olympics fired up not by chemicals, but by blood, sweat and tears.

The experts don't give him much chance of making it through the qualifiers, but whether he finishes first or last, we know he will make his mum very proud -- along with everyone in his home city.