By ANDY NEILD

ARTHUR Almond's 14 year wait to see Jason Lobo take on the best in the world will finally come to an end in Spain tonight.

Former Blackburn Harrier Lobo is set to line up for the first round of the 800 metres at the World Championships in Seville.

And for Harriers coach, Almond, it will be a happy conclusion to a journey stretching back to 1985.

In an area representative match staged at Crystal Palace 14 years ago, a 15-year-old Lobo shattered Steve Cram's age-best record in the 1500 metres.

That was the moment Almond knew his star pupil was destined to make it to the top.

And after several near misses, that prophecy is about to be fulfilled.

"After he broke that record I knew he was good enough to go on and do well internationally - it's been his destiny," said Almond, Lobo's coach and mentor.

"I came home that night and told my wife 'This lad's capable of going to the top.' I still think he can do that and I don't think we've seen the best of him yet."

The 29-year-old Belgrave Harrier had threatened to keep Almond waiting a little longer.

He only made the World Championship qualifying time a day before the dead-line and had to smash his own personal best in the process.

But, fresh from a one-week training camp in Portugal, he now wants to make up for lost time.

"Getting to the Commonwealth Games last year was fantastic - it was a brilliant experience," said Lobo.

"But that was with the England team, this is with the Great Britain team, and to represent Great Britain in a major championship means you are among the very best.

"I'm feeling pretty confident.

"To achieve the qualifying time means I'm running at an extremely high level and I ended up doing that quite convincingly.

"If I can repeat that sort of time going through qualifying then that should be good enough to take me through to the semi-finals.

"Then I'll probably have to run a bit faster to make it to the final itself."

The schedule itself is gruelling.

If Lobo makes it to the final, he'll end up running three races in the space of four days in humid temperatures. But there's no question of him holding back. He plans to run every race as if it's his last.

And, after competing in scorching heat at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpar last year, he knows what's needed to counter the conditions.

"The conditions will have a bearing but I'm only running two laps of the track so it won't have a massive influence," said Lobo, whose race starts at 8.45pm

Overwhelming favourite for the gold is 800 metres world record holder Wilson Kipketer.

The Kenyan, who now competes for Denmark, is the current champion and has also run the fastest time in the world this year.

But Lobo is just as keen to beat Great Britain team-mates Curtis Robb and Mark Sesay.

And that race within a race may provide the impetus needed for a charge to the final.

"We are all going into it with very similar times - I think there's only three 10ths of a second between us - so it's going to be a battle. But that bit of extra competition will push us on.

"Wilson Kipketer is obviously going to be the favourite. He was out with malaria last year but now he's come back, he's probably running faster than ever.

"The three Kenyans, whoever they've picked, will also be very, very good.

"And the South Africans are another team looking strong.

"But I ran a lifetime's best at Crystal Palace three weeks ago and I didn't just nick it, I smashed it. And I'm confident I can go even faster than that yet.

"I feel like I'm coming into shape at just the right time and not many athletes out there will have run a personal best as recently as me."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.