Jenny Meadows wants to exit Olympics in style at London 2012

Meadows won 800m silver at the European Indoor Championships this year

British 800m runner Jenny Meadows says she expects the 2012 London Olympics to be her last, and is making use of "each and every hour" to ensure success.

She told BBC Radio 5 live: "I'm a late-starter and it's only in the last three years I've really hit my peak.

"This will be my last Olympic games - I'll be 31 next year.

"In 2016, I'll be 35. Never say never, but I'll have been in the sport a long time and the stats say you should be at your peak between 27 and 31."

Meadows made her senior international debut in the 4x400m relay in 2004 but did not win her first individual medal for Great Britain until 2009, when she picked up 800m bronze at the World Championships in Berlin.

She won bronze again at the European Championships the following year, and silver at the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

However, she was unable to recapture that form at this year's World Championships in South Korea, exiting in the semi-final, the stage she also reached in her only previous Olympic appearance at Beijing in 2008.

But the Wigan athlete is adamant London will be her chance to make a mark at Olympic level, and is leaving nothing to chance in her preparation.

"From the moment I get up, I make sure I'm eating the right things to make sure my body's in good shape," she said.

"I'm taking extra trips to the physio, doing extra sessions stretching - making sure I do all the little extras as well as the training sessions."

The 30-year-old, who despite her disappointment in Daegu collected silver at the European Indoor Championships this year, is not satisfied with her fifth-place world ranking: "It's fantastic but I want to be in the top three.

"It's all to do with my psyche. For many years I've been an athlete on the GB team, accepting my place going to the major championships as British number two or three, getting to the semi-final, and that's where my journey ends.

"One day I said to myself: take yourself seriously. You're doing all this hard work - have some faith in yourself. I did it once and it began to be a habit.

"At one point I thought, I'm sacrificing all this and making so many commitments and nothing is happening," she added.

"I'm just glad it's happening at last."