TEAM Southampton's Melanie Purkiss is hoping the weather will match her sunny mood in the Netherlands tomorrow.

Having had her 2005 outdoor season wrecked by a sciatic problem, the 27-year-old 400 metres star is getting back to her best and hopes to follow her sizzling indoor form for Great Britain with selection for the European Championships in Gothenberg, Sweden (August 6-13).

Her attempts to escape the miserable British weather backfired last weekend when she opened her outdoor campaign amid tricky conditions in Norway.

Purkiss still managed to win in 53.99 seconds, ahead of fellow Briton Lesley Owusu (54.82), but laughed: "It's typical! You go abroad for your first run hoping to get good weather for your opener and it turns out to be raining, cold and really windy.

"I'd like to have done a better time, but it wasn't too bad considering the conditions and I was happy with the race.

"Hopefully I'll get some nicer weather in the Netherlands this weekend. I'm expecting it to be quite fast. I don't know who else is running, but at this stage I'm just so hungry to compete again after all the injury problems last year that it doesn't really matter who I'm up against. It's just nice to be back on the start line, injury free."

Purkiss was sidelined with a back/hip problem as early as the Hampshire Championships last May and it ended up wiping out her entire season and destroying any hope she had of qualifying for the Commonwealth Games.

Instead she turned her attentions indoors and, with fellow training partners Emma Duck and Helen Karagounis, set a new British national record for the 4x400m relay at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow.

All three girls are thriving under the coaching of Todd Bennett in Southampton and Purkiss admitted: "The fact that three out of four of the girls who set that record are coached by Todd is great for him. I owe so much to Todd. He's so solid in terms of training and for me personally in terms of giving me confidence. He's been a rock."

After the Netherlands, Purkiss has more overseas races lined up in Italy and Switzerland.

"I might as well compete as much as I can," she said. "I know I'm in good shape and it's going take a couple of races to get it right. My motivation is high and I'm loving it."

Karagounis, who travels down from Nottingham to train with Bennett, won the 400m as a guest competitor at last weekend's Inter-Counties Championships, clocking 54.61.

Team Southampton's Kieren Kelly was second in the shot put (16.57), while Basingstoke & Mid Hants' Helena Tobin sister of 400m man Robert clocked 4.26.03 for fourth in the 1500m.