In winter it's still busy (Christmas Day is especially popular), but you have to scale the steep slope behind the car park in pitch blackness, sliding in the mud: in London gay circles, the sudden appearance of muddy shoes in a hallway is the instantly recognised sign that someone's been out cruising, by the way. They were smoking, ignoring their dogs (a lot of "straight" men use dogs as excuses for being here), giving lots of eye-contact and, if they liked the look of you, provocatively stroking the front of their jeans or tracksuits.The men who come here are all ages, from teenage to old age, done out in anything from chavvy sportswear to walking boots, shorts and jeans with the odd bit of fetishwear thrown in. The first time a friend took me "up the Heath", cruising in the woods at the top of London's Hampstead Heath, I was terrified and turned on in equal measure. Being summer, it was still quite light, but most people have had a lifetime of being warned about men lurking in the woods - and here I was taking two buses to get to them. Going "up the Heath" is a bit of a rite of passage for many gay men, often the first time you've done the anonymous sex thing, and it's something you are usually initiated into by a friend who already goes up there. Mine steered me down the steep path behind the pub car park to the main drag, a path through the trees about the size of a main road, lined not with lamp posts or speed cameras, but with men sitting on every available horizontal plane, leaning against every tree.

Guided Tracy Wickham, whose World Championship 400m freestyle record has stood since '78.IN BRITAIN: Performance director of British Swimming since Nov 2000. Contract ends after 2008 Olympics; 18 medals in three World Championships, matching tally in the previous eight Two bronzes at 2004 Olympics.. Australia's head coach at four Olympics and five Commonwealth Games. Also coach of Hong Kong and Australian national youth.HIGHLIGHTS: Personal coach to nine world record holders and 27 medallists. He has, after all, turned back the tide threatening to sink British swimming.Life & Times: Making waves Down UnderNAME: William Sweetenham.BORN: 23 March 1950, Rockhampton, Australia.CAREER: Former head of swimming at Australian Institute of Sport. "Britain is about to realise that; 2012 can beat us if we don't accept it's a timeline that we have to meet.

There's an urgency there that needs to be addressed."Perhaps that could be the next challenge for Bill Sweetenham: taking on time. "Time is our enemy," the performance director says, leaning back in his chair, having finally polished off his breakfast. Aside from the strength of the Continental opposition, the British team will be without the absent Davies, while Chris Cook and Liam Tancock, two other Commonwealth golden boys, are attempting to make up for time lost to injuries. I've never trusted luck or chance."If you don't prepare at the level you'll need to be at when you get to the Olympics you're not going to do anything there I've tried to instil that. There's no forgiveness in the Olympic arena."It will be the same in the European arena in Budapest this week. Ninety-nine per cent of the world's athletes and coaches think they can prepare at a lower level and that it'll happen for them when they step up at the Olympics, by chance or luck or because they're a nice person Well, I don't see that. "The European Championships will be a much tougher meet than the Commonwealth Games," Sweetenham says.