Nathan Douglas (pictured) landed the UK Indoor triple jump title with a personal best and insisted he will be fine to compete in Saturday's Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham despite withdrawing after just one valid jump in Sheffield yesterday.

The Oxford City athlete secured the gold medal and booked his place in the British team for next month's European Indoor Championships with a magnificent second round leap of 17.19m.

The jump sees him climb to No 2 in the European rankings.

He withdrew from the competition after he felt tightness in his ankle in the third round, but is adamant the act was purely precautionary.

His main rival, Phillips Idowu, the Commonwealth champion, had also pulled out of the competition after a first round 16.68m because of a heel injury.

"I was having problems with the hop into the step phase so I'm pretty satisfied with 17.19m," said Douglas.

"I felt my right ankle tighten and thought why make it worse?

"But it is not a major problem and I shall be at the Grand Prix on Saturday."

Douglas, who opened his indoor season with a best of 17.14m in Stuttgart earlier this month, is clearly rounding into good form and said he was delighted with his winter work.

He has missed only a week of training, but warned there was no guarantee this will translate to success.

"I'm in pretty good shape, but the triple jump is a technical event and if you can't get the technique right you will not perform," he explained.

The Grand Prix will be his last outing before he returns to the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham for the European Indoor Championships next month.

With European No 1 Christian Olsson of Sweden struggling through injury, it represents a great opportunity for Douglas to win a first senior championship medal.

But although he insisted he was not scared of Olsson, he was cagey about making predictions.

"My aim is the same as normal, it is to make the final and hopefully fight for a medal," he added.

"I have massive respect for Olsson, his consistency is phenomenal, but at the same time he is just another triple jumper."