Fit-again Freyja Prentice excited to compete at Rio 2016 Olympic Games test event
Freyja Prentice and her Pentathlon GB team-mates will compete in the Rio 2016 Olympic venues today as the second UIPM World Cup of the season gets under way.
The competition in Brazil is doubling as an Olympic test event and University of Bath Biology graduate Prentice cannot wait to get started.
“I am very excited about competing this week,” she said. “It is always good to get the first competition underway after such a long winter period. It will be good to see what kind of state I am in and how well I can transfer my efforts in training to a competition.
“I am also very excited to not just see the Olympic venues but to compete in them as well. We will get a small sense of what it will be like in five months’ time, which is a very exciting thought!”
Prentice last competed internationally in the European Championships held at the GB team’s University of Bath training base last summer, where she placed 13th after four months on the sidelines.
The 25-year-old then came second in the first GB ranking competition of the season before dislocating her shoulder while out on a run over the Christmas period.
“I am a little bit nervous about competing for the first time after my dislocation as the injury altered my training regime significantly at the start of the year, particularly in the pool,” she said.
“But I am really pleased with the progress my shoulder has made and I am just very grateful to be able to be competing at all.
“I think I have to be a little realistic going into the first competition, so initially I hope to make it into the final. The standard has stepped up a gear this year, as well as the number of competitors, so it will be a tough semi-final.
“I am confident that I am fit and training has been going well, so I really hope that I can transfer this into a good competition.”
Prentice, Samantha Murray, Kate French and Francesca Summers compete in the women’s qualifiers today (Thursday), with the men’s quartet of Sam Curry, Joe Choong, Jamie Cooke and Tom Toolis in action on Friday.
