Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

ANOTHER milestone to the start of the Olympic Games passed last week, just one 100 days until the opening ceremony.

It seems we are constantly being bombarded with new statistics on the countdown to London. The press are working hard in building the hype and encouraging the public to get involved but as an athlete these figures are nothing more than that. The majority of us still have many significant competitions between now and the end of July, especially the GB pentathlon squad.

As the latest Olympic countdown was flashed across the UK news bulletins I was travelling through Vienna on the way to Russia for the final World Cup of the season. This is the fourth competition of my career in Russia but my first time out of Moscow, I must admit my expectations weren't too high when heading to Rostov-on-Don. However my first impressions were helped by the pleasant climate, not what one might expect from the country renowned for fur coats and Baltic temperatures.

The competition was planned around their seasons as the winter can plummet as low as minus 50 degrees centigrade with the summer reaching well into the 40C degrees — both extremes are quite incomprehensible for us. Rostov hosted an efficiently run competition and even provided record numbers of spectators for our sport, I'm sure this was helped by the men's double Olympic pentathlon champion being from this city. Outside of our two competition day's activity options were somewhat limited. Shopping is always a great way to stretch our legs and get out of the hotel between the semi and the final. I thought I might have been in my element, as at first glance there seemed to be plenty of dress shops, but it turned out only of the bridal variety —what is the world trying to tell me!