Oxford City’s Hannah England goes into this weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Paris with a medal on her mind as she continues her build-up to London 2012.

After posting an indoor personal best of 4mins 7.24secs in the 1500m to finish third at the Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham last month, England hopes to be in the hunt for success in the French capital.

England, who celebrates her 24th birthday on Sunday, lowered her pb further to 4.07.13 at the XL-Galan meeting in Sweden three days later, and says she couldn’t be in better shape.

“I really want to make the final this weekend, and I’m feeling really good at the moment,” she said.

“I’ve trained hard during the winter, and I’m ranked sixth on season’s bests, so I’d like to at least match that ranking this weekend.

“Indoor racing is very unpredictable, so I’d say a medal is a possibility.”

While readily admitting that the indoor season was not her priority this year, England’s training regime has taken her to Kenya this winter with UK Athletics for an altitude training camp.

She said: “I usually visit the USA in the winter for training, but after talking it through with UK Athletics, they suggested that some altitude training in Kenya would serve me well.

“The altitude makes training tough, but it was great to be involved with a squad of athletes with UK Athletics.

“We worked predominantly on endurance, and I think that’s really showed with my recent personal bests.”

In the glorious surroundings of the Rift Valley, the home of Kenyan altitude training, England put in the hard yards 8,000 feet above sea level.

She joked: “It was pretty high! But it makes you really strong.

“It was wicked to get out there and train in such a wonderful place.

“After this championships, I will be going away again with UK Athletics for some more altitude training in France.

“With the Olympics 18 months away, I want to make this year as good as possible and build on my success of last year.

“Hopefully it will be a really good year and I will know where I am and what I need to do ahead of London.”

England competes in the heats at the Palais Omnisports tomorrow evening, with the final scheduled for Saturday.

l Hannah England was in Kenya as part of the UKA/London Marathon Altitude Training Camp.