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Triathlon: Emma follows her mum . . . to Australia
HER mum recently returned from the World Olympic Distance Championships, her swimming training partner last week tackled the World Ironman Championships, and now it is Emma Cranfield's turn.
HER mum recently returned from the World Olympic Distance Championships, her swimming training partner last week tackled the World Ironman Championships, and now it is Emma Cranfield's turn.The 28 year-old PACTRAC star flies out to Australia this week for the World Long-Distance Championships in Perth. It will be her third world championship outing but her first at this distance (3k swim, 50-mile bike and 13.1-mile half-marathon run) having competed over the Olympic distance in Madeira in 2004 (finishing 31st in the 20-24 age group) and Hawaii a year later (19th, again in the 20-24 age group).
Cranfield's mum, Carol Smallman, recently finished 47th in her age group on Australia's Gold Coast and Emma's training partner Roger Canham was seventh in his age group in Hawaii so what can we expect from the PACTRAC Mini-Series champion?
"I don't really know what to expect as it's my first World Championships at this distance," admitted Cranfield, who has received superb support from employees Fitzwilliam Hospital who have stumped up 1,000 to help pay her costs.
She added: "I'm going well and have been training hard so I feel ready for it."
The city physiotherapist flies out tomorrow and will race on the Sunday and is looking forward to competing in a world championship again after trying other things since her outing in Hawaii.
She explained: "Since my last world championships I've made my Ironman debut, run the London Marathon and competed in the Trans-Rocky Bike Race in Canada. But doing things like that made me realise I wanted to stick mainly to things I'm good at."
Cranfield took up triathlon on the advice of Stanground College's Wendy Gooding at the age of 14, having previously been a useful swimmer under the guidance of city legend Brian Brinkley.
She can still be seen in the pool at 5.30am three days a week, showing the dedication needed to produce the goods at this level.
As well as those one-and-a-half hour sessions she also runs four times a week and gets on the bike a further three times including a four-hour ride at the weekend.
"I'm lucky that I only live five minutes away from the pool but it's still an early start," said Cranfield. "Hopefully a good performance in Australia will make it all worthwhile."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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