Craig is a soap star!

The 28-year-old gymnast is one of the faces of Commonwealth Games sponsors' Imperial Leather.

And the Burnley lad's picture is on the billboards around Manchester at the moment, where he is warming up for an eight-pronged attack on the medals.

"There's a huge picture on the side of one of the buildings. It's about 50 foot high. It is strange but it is also nice," said the English champion.

"It has only taken me 20 years to become semi-famous for two weeks!"

Heap, who was Britain's only male gymnast at the Sydney Olympics, is currently settling into the Commonwealth Village as he gears up for his competition which starts on Friday.

The England captain will be taking part in the team event from 4pm on Friday in the G-Mex Centre.

There the England team will be defending the gold medal they won at Kuala Lumpur four years ago.

"I think it is tied on we will get a medal," admitted Heap, who hopes to be leading the English onto the podium to collect gold at 8.20pm on Friday night.

"It is just what colour as the Australians and the Canadians are strong.

"It is all about the day."

In the team event, Heap has got the nod to compete in all six disciplines -- the vault, pommel horse, floor, parallel bars, high bar and rings.

"That's good as we have a five man team and just four out of five will compete in any event, so to get picked to do all six is a brilliant," admitted Heap who is in his last major championships.

On Sunday, from 1pm until 3pm, Heap will take part in the Men's Individual All-Round event where he will compete on the six disciplines again and the highest score over all the events will pick up gold.

Then on Monday, it is the individual events - again he should compete on each of the six, battling to win a medal on each one.

The men's floor is at 11am with the presentation straight after, followed by the pommel at 12 noon, the rings at 12.50pm, the vault at 6pm, the parallel bars at 7pm and the horizontal bars at 7.50pm.

"Friday and Sunday are my big days and anything else is a bonus after that," admitted Heap.

"The G-Mex, although cold for training at the moment, looks really good and the atmosphere should be brilliant as they spectators are so close to the action.

"At Sydney they were miles away but this should be good and they will be friendly, shouting for us!"

The G-Mex holds 5,000 but Heap should be able to cope with the pressure after competing in the Olympics, where he made the final cut of 36 - competing in front of tens of thousands - to eventually finish with a personal best in 32nd place.

"I hope that will work to my advantage and that my main competitors in the all-round event - there are around five altogether from Canada and Australia who could win it on the day - crack under the pressure.

"I beat a number of these in Sydney so it should certainly make it an interesting couple of days."

He is currently living in the Commonwealth Village in Fallowfield.

"You don't tend to see many athletes hanging around, not all of them have arrived yet but the atmosphere is just beginning to build up."

He is slightly nervous but loves the big occasion and although eight medals is probably beyond him, he has a realistic opportunity of at least three and that could mean he enjoys more than five minutes in the spotlight.

"The big thing at the moment for the English team is to get as many medals as possible to get as close to the Australians as we can," said Heap.

"They always get a huge toll and if the English gymnasts can take a few off them then it closes the gap on them.

"For me, it would be great to get anywhere near three but the team event is the main thing and hopefully we can get the English team off to a good start."