Richardson Targets Cycling Place in CWG This Year

Ellie Richardson is in full sporting form as she targets cycling place in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. There has been a lot of talk about the legacy of London 2012 and how sports will benefit from Olympics. In fact, one of Harris & Ross’ own physiotherapist has been motivated from the exceptional performance of Team GB.

As Ellie Richardson gets ready for the Commonwealth Games and Glasgow 2014, let’s take a look at what she had to say:

Richardson has only been competing in track cycling for 11 months. She is Ex-Scottish national, who was earlier a sprint champion in 200m in athletics. But, it was only after an unfortunate ankle injury and surgery that she was forced to take retirement prior to the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Later, after a series of continued setbacks with her ankle, Ellie finally decided to give track cycling a go.

In her first track cycling month, at the British National Track Championships, Ellie came away with third fastest Women’s Team Sprint time. Six months later, with a little more experience, Ellie went on to win two gold and one silver medal at the British University Track Championships.

According to Ellie, in order to ensure automatic selection for Glasgow 2014, she needs to meet specific time standards within the selection window. She further added that it is a real challenge for an amateur athlete like her to prove that even she can be competitive against the full-time, professional athletes.

In terms of training and preparation, Richardson believes that it’s not about just putting in the hard work but also finding time to properly recover between various training sessions. That’s nothing short of a challenge for non-professional athletes like her. Ellie is currently pursuing her masters in Manual Therapy and is also working on a part time basis at Harris and Ross. She adds that she will be traveling up and down the country to attend various camps – this further adds to her already busy schedule.