By Mark Etheridge
South African triathlete Anel Radford has made the trip across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town where she’ll be aiming to erase some bad memories from a year ago.
This time last year the Australia-based athlete was in a race to try and qualify for the Rio Olympics, but a freak injury which saw her breaking a rib during a previous event, meant she was only able to complete the swim and bike legs in last year’s Olympic distance race in Cape Town.
The injury meant she was unable to qualify for Rio, but she came back strongly with some good showings in the Far East towards the end of the year.
Now she’s super-excited to be back for the sprint distance Discovery World Cup in the Mother City (the first of 16 stops on the World Cup calendar during the year) to start off her 2017 season.
‘I had a very disruptive 2016 season, so it was good to take some time at the end of last year to have a break and recharge.
‘I have been training with the Wizards in Wollongong, Australia for the last month and training has been going well with the focus on technique and strength and slowly building into the 2017 season.
‘Cape Town will be my first race for this season. I don’t usually start my racing season until March, so this is a very early race for me. It’s a once-a-year opportunity to race a WTS or World Cup at home, so even though I’m not sure what to expect with regards to early season race form, I’m very excited to be on the start line.’
What’s the experienced 39-year-old looking to get out of this race? ‘I expect to see some of the pre-season work I’ve done come through in the race (technique and strength). I’ll use this race as a starting point for the season and look to build on this in the next few races.’
‘I had a quick look at the field. It’s probably what you would expect from an early season race – good mix of athletes and it’s good to see so many South Africans in the start line. It will be a good experience for the up and coming youngsters.’
Picture of Radford in action at the Australia Day aquathon in Wollongong courtesy of Witsup