FANCY giving up a villa in Las Vegas, a Porsche 911 and the chance to work for just 15 minutes a day for a whopping £100,000 a year.

It sounds too good to be true but gymnast Craig Heap has turned his back on all this to pursue his dream of winning medals.

Craig's friend Paul Bowler is living the high life in America after abandoning his amateur gymnastic career for wealth and fame across the Atlantic.

Paul, who is from Middleton, competed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona but injured himself during the competition - he fell off the high bar and dislocated his shoulder - and failed to finish.

He then trained with Burnley lad Craig for the Atlanta Olympics where both failed to make it - Craig finishing fourth in qualifying and Paul around tenth.

Craig has since had much success, winning a gold medal in the gymnastic team event in the last Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, and then the 28-year-old had the glory of being the only Great Britain entrant in the Sydney Olympics and finishing an astounding 32nd while also achieving a personal best.

A nice kind of glory for Craig - but it could have been so different if he had decided to follow Paul's path.

Paul - who is a few years older than Craig - saw an advertisement in Stage magazine just after failing to make the Atlanta Games in 1996. It was for a gymnast to perform in the circus - the Cirque Du Soleil.

"At first I had visions of him in a cage tackling lions and tigers but it is nothing like that!" said Craig. "It is a national circus and they have a number throughout the world. They are well-established."

Paul had an audition in 1996, got in as a solo artist and, after starting in the circus in Europe called 'Alegria', got the plum job of having a solo in the huge circus in Las Vegas a year ago.

"I have just been over to see him and it is astonishing," admitted Craig.

"I know over here what our visions of circuses are but they are nothing like that abroad.

"It is like nothing you have ever seen before. They spend a fortune on them with moving floors, smoke to make it more atmospheric, live bands and it costs something like 100 dollars to get in.

"There is a queue every night for spare tickets and while we were there, Elizabeth Taylor and Prince went to watch the show. Loads of celebrities go and Paul is now one of these over there."

Paul has two seven and a half minutes slots a day five days a week where he uses his gymnastic skills - but he did also have to have a few ballet dancing lessons.

"That's when he first went over because they thought he was too wooden," laughed Craig. "He didn't mind. I was a small price to pay for what was to come.

"Because he is a solo performer, he gets around £100,000 a year and has a four bedroom house in Vegas with a swimming pool and outside Jacuzzi.

"He has a speedboat and a Land Rover Discovery to transport it and has just bought a Porsche 911.

"I get around £400 a month from the Lottery to survive. I must be absolutely mad!"

The Americans love the fact that Paul has appeared at the Olympics - so Craig knows he would be a top man if he went over there.

"Paul was unlucky at his Olympics in Barcelona because he was injured but I have been to Sydney and got a placing.

"Paul is a god over there for being in the Olympics. That is how they promote their shows, how many Olympians they have there. So I have been told I would be hot property."

But for some reason he has stayed away from the temptation of making the trip although he did have an audition when Paul did - 'well, they asked me' - and is kept informed if anything comes up.

He has had a couple of phone calls to be part of the group performances or the 'house troop' - they earn about £25,000 a year - but he wanted to go to the Sydney Olympics last year.

Now he has done that he is holding out for a solo spot.

"I wouldn't hesitate now. I have been to the Olympics and I wouldn't swap that experience for anything.

"I can go to the circus now but I can't go back to the Olympics. Nobody can take that away from me. It was a magical experience, I represented Great Britain on my own - I was representing millions of people - and that was something that will live with me forever.

"I am far richer experience-wise for doing it but not money wise so the thought now of going into the circus would be too much to turn down.

"At the end of the Commonwealth Games, I will have no money, no house and I want to get married to my fiancee Paula but have nothing to start with.

"Even though in America it is all very 'in your face' I would give it a go for five years, make my money and then return to Britain. I can't leave Britain for good though, I love it here too much."

So while he waits for that phone call, Craig is focusing on the Commonwealth Games in Manchester where he is going for five gold medals.

Injury has prevented him going for the eight he at first wanted to try for.

Of the six disciplines he would have to take part in, an elbow injury - a long term problem for which he has had several operations - has forced him to abandon his strongest event the rings and the pommel and thus the chance of the overall prize.

"It is disappointing but I can now concentrate on the four disciplines and make sure I can compete in them for the individual prizes and help the team repeat the gold medal success of Kuala Lumpur where we just held off Australia."

It means he will be going for the floor, the parallel bars, the high bar and the vault. Achieving glory in any of these means if the circus then beckoned his name will go down as one of the top British gymnasts - following on from Neil Thomas who was 20th in the Barcelona Olympics and won three Commonwealth golds in the early 1990s.

"Whatever I get at the Commonwealth Games is a bonus. I would love to get a couple of gold medals and I hope I can. I still have the one I won from the last Commonwealth Games although my mum's house got burgled and I thought I had lost it.

"We move around such a lot without a permanent base that my things are scattered all over the place.

"Luckily, it wasn't there and now it is in a safe place. It was the biggest sigh of relief ever when I saw it."

And with more gold medals on the horizon - he could stand a chance of exceeding even Paul's earning power in the circus.