BEIJING, August 8, 2008 (AFP) - Brian Clay and Kelly Sotherton are the red hot favourites for the most demanding events in athletics the decathlon and hepathlon respectively and they really are theirs to lose.

28-year-old Clay is looking to turn silver from 2004 into gold in Athens while Sotherton, 31, took bronze in 2004.

Now, however, the pressure really is on both of them as they survey two sets of rivals that have either been devastated by injury or because heptathlon superstar Carolin Kluft has opted not to compete in the event.

For Clay it should not be an in surmountable problem as he has already overcome a troubled youth to become a fine athlete who added a world title to his laurels in 2005 and a world indoor heptathlon crown this year.

Clay has had to scrap his way to the top after he and his Japanese mother effectively lived a hand-to-mouth existence in Hawaii after his African American father quit the family household.

His mother provided food for him from food stamps whilst he reacted to the tough neighbourhood he lived in by getting into scraps in what he termed his 'delinquent youth on an idyllic island.'

Now, though, after stamping his mark as the best of the three Americans at the Olympic trials, he wants to win big.

'I'm going to do whatever it takes to be standing on top of the podium,' said Clay.

The married father of two is not concerned by the pollution in Beijing.

'There's always going to be concern about conditions and climate,' said Clay, who has not forgotten his difficult adolesence and has set up the Brian Clay Foundation which looks after underprivileged students.

'I've had to deal with some of the worst conditions there are.

'I train in Azuza, (near Los Angeles) which has some of the worst air quality anywhere.

'You work and prepare for it but you don't dwell on it. If you dwell on it, it can have a detrimental effect on your preparation and training.'

Sotherton has two barriers blocking an almost certain Olympic title - her inability to throw the javelin far and the Ukrainian athlete Lyudmila Blonska, who took world silver last year ahead of her.

Sotherton, who has been tipped for the gold by Kluft and American legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee believes she doesn't get enough media attention despite winning a Commonwealth title and five other minor medals.

However, she is insistent that her javelin has improved enough to bring her an extra edge and avenge herself on Blonska, who she openly termed a cheat last year because she had served a drugs ban.

'I always get criticised for it being bad, and it is bad, but can't they recognise the progress I'm making? If people can't recognise that progress then they're blind.

'It's not a physical problem, its a mental one. The more of a point people make about it, the more I struggle.'

And she is equally adamant that being favourite is not going to get to her.

'I feel I'm able to switch it on for the big occasion.'

Time will only tell whether the lights do go out on her bid or she is able to make her point with the javelin.