Three-time Olympic medallist Jonny Brownlee is looking to put injury and disappointing early season form behind him in next weekend\u2019s Paris test event <\/p>
Jonny Brownlee<\/a> is hoping that four weeks training at a \u201ctried and tested\u201d altitude camp in St Moritz will give him the impetus he needs to perform at next weekend\u2019s Paris test event \u2013 and put him on the road to a fourth Olympic Games.<\/strong><\/p>\n With individual bronze (London 2012) and silver (Rio 2016), and mixed team relay gold from Tokyo \u20182020\u2019 already to his name, the 33-year-old flies to the holding camp at Libourne near Bordeaux on Monday with training partner and current World Triathlon Championship leader Beth Potter. They will join Loughborough-based Alex Yee<\/a><\/strong> and Sophie Coldwell<\/a><\/strong> who have already made the trip and are also on the start-list along with world Under-23 champion Kate Waugh<\/a><\/strong> and Olivia Mathias<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see if it works again,\u201d Brownlee said of the Switzerland location that was the prelude for previous Games\u2019 success, adding that having struggled with hamstring tendinopathy \u2013 \u201cliterally a pain in the arse\u201d \u2013 he now has a clean bill of health and ready to improve on his only podium of 2023, a runner-up spot in the European Championship in Madrid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThankfully, my body is in far better shape now, and far healthier and hopefully I can show that in these next couple of races. It\u2019s not just Paris but the Grand Final and Super League racing as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That contest in Madrid was turned into a duathlon after the water failed to pass the required standards for the swim. After recent heavy downpours, World Triathlon issued a memo earlier this week indicating that the same fate could befall the test event, which uses the River Seine in the heart of the city.<\/span><\/p>\n If it was switched to a run-bike-run then it would mean that the races would no longer count for automatic qualification purposes precluding Yee \u2013 as the only current individual Olympic medal holder racing following Georgia Taylor-Brown\u2019s calf tear \u2013 from ticking the box here.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a road we\u2019ve been down many times before,\u201d Brownlee said. \u201cIn Rio, it was the water quality, and in Tokyo, it was the heat and the water temperature. The simple answer is that we\u2019ll prepare the best we can, hopefully for a triathlon, but if not we\u2019ll race what it needs to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have to put all our trust and faith in World Triathlon and the organisers to make sure we have a safe environment to compete, whether that involves cancelling the swim or not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After sickness among athletes following last weekend\u2019s WTCS race in Sunderland, and the threat of swim cancellation here, Coldwell said triathlon is not alone in facing environmental challenges.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think you see it across a whole range of sports,\u201d she said. \u201cThe F1 in Imola got cancelled because of flooding, and there\u2019s been issues with fires across the globe. There are a whole host of weather issues that are affecting sport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWater quality has become an issue for tri, but hopefully these issues can be resolved and I know councils and local authorities are trying to put things in place to make it as safe as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat if the test event becomes a duathlon?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What will the test event course be like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n