By Sean Davies BBC Sport

Daniel Caines edges Matt Elias to second in Manchester

Matt Elias plans to go one better at next year's Commonwealth Games to erase the heartache of Manchester 2002.

The Cardiff man, 26, was agonisingly edged into second place by Chris Rawlinson in the 400m hurdles final and by Daniel Caines in the 4x400m.

England's win in the latter event was by just one hundredth of a second, a thing Elias still finds hard to accept.

"I'll swear to my dying day I won that race in Manchester! I crossed the line and just felt I'd done it," said Elias.

"It was a great performance, but I need to go that one better now and bring back gold from Melbourne.

"There's going to be a lot of hard work in the build-up and it'll go incredibly quickly, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm ready to go."

Elias was a Welsh junior record holder, but he exploded from obscurity in 2002, his distinctive hairstyles quickly making him a familiar face.

I've gone back to the way I used to train when I was younger, concentrating on strength rather than speed Matt Elias

England's Rawlinson beat him by just 14 hundredths of a second in the hurdles, before he went so close to glory in the 4x400m with Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch and Tim Benjamin.

But things have been far more difficult since as Elias has been a figure on the fringes at the major championships.

A series of injuries, particularly to his knee, hampered him to such an extent that for a while he wanted to give up hurdles to concentrate on flat-track racing.

Even in Wales he has been somewhat sidelined by the emergence of young 400m hurdler Rhys Williams, but Elias is confident that a return to his roots will see him to success in Australia.

"This year ended disappointingly, but it was after a long season and I was carrying a few niggles," Elias told BBC Sport Wales.

Chris Rawlinson edges Matt Elias to second in Manchester

"I'm back to full training now and it's going really well.

"My training regime has changed a little bit. I'm working with Linford Christie my coach, Phil Banning, the head of Welsh athletics, and I've also got a hurdles coach.

"I've gone back to the way I used to train when I was younger, concentrating on strength rather than speed.

"With the speed training I was picking up a lot of niggly injuries, but now I'm out pounding the roads and doing cross country.

"I've been out at the Merthyr Mawr sand dunes and I'm getting really strong.

"I used to be able to step onto the track knowing that I'd worked harder than anyone else and was stronger than them.

"I want to get that feeling back ready for when I'm standing on the start line in Melbourne."