THE Olympic flame won't burn any brighter than in the hearts of the three Olympians from this area who will be pitched into the cauldron of world competition this weekend.

Olympic rowing has of course become one of our major sports and thus the burden of following in the footsteps of five times Olympic gold medal winner Sir Steve Redgrave will weigh heavily on Guiseley's Debbie Flood and Otley's Ian

Lawson.

The pressure will none the less be felt by Menston-based diver Mark Shipman who is competing in his second Olympic Games.

When the doves of peace are released over the legendary Greek city of Athens tomorrow, Friday, Flood, Lawson and Shipman will be among the 10,000 athletes competing for glory.

The most realistic chance seems to lie with the 24 year-old Flood as she and her colleagues in the women's quadruple sculls team carried off the gold medals in the World Cup in Lucerne recently.

Debbie along with Rebecca Romero, Frances Houghton and Alison Mowbray gained a dramatic win in Lucerne triumphing by mere inches from the more experienced Germans.

This win also gave them the overall World Cup title after winning in Poznan, Poland, and taking silver in Munich, Germany.

This emerging young crew - three of whom are former world Under-23 champions - will be looking to make their mark in the Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre.

Debbie will be watched by her mother and father. It was her father John who got her into rowing in the first place. John and Debbie were keen judo exponents and as John explained: "We used to do judo at the Wharfedale and Aireborough Club at Aireborough Leisure Centre but I got injured. To keep fit we decided to go on the rowing machines at the local leisure centres and at Trinity and All Saints College.

"Debbie was 17 at the time and she seemed to be doing rather well on the indoor rowing machines. One day I caught sight of some ranking list and noticed that she was pulling faster than some of the British rowers. She started to enter indoor rowing events and later made the transition into boats."

Debbie was in fact a black belt Great Britain junior judo international and she shows the same dedication in her new sport of rowing.

She was also a county-level 1500 metres runner with Skyrac Athletic Club.

Ian Lawson also switched sports to become an Olympic rower. The 27 year-old used to be a keen cross-country runner competing at county and national level.

He will race in the single scull following his qualification in Lucerne. For the past two seasons he has been in the world top six in the double.

Born in Bradford but now based in Henley on Thames, he is a member of the Leander Club.Ian is supported by a grant from the Lottery Sports Fund as part of UK Sport's World Class Performance Programme.

He finished fifth in the men's double with Matt Wells at the 2003 World Rowing Championships in Milan, securing an Olympic qualifying place, a major step forward for the men's sculling squad.

Although this was an improvement of one place on the 2002 Worlds result, the boat was much closer to the medal zone, just over one second behind bronze.

Earlier in the season Ian had to race the single in the first World Cup because of his partner's illness. He put in an exceptional performance to finish fourth in a British best time of 6min 44secs.

Ian moved south to Henley in January 2000 after graduating from Durham University.

City of Sheffield diver Mark Shipman with the experience of one Olympic Games behind him will compete in the 3m springboard and 3m synchronised team events.

The 32 year-old finished seventh in the 3m synchro team event in the 2000 Games and 46th in the 3m springboard event.