Wostmann not confident of marathon double

Last year Wöstmann, who trains at the High Performance Centre (HPC) in Pretoria, made local athletic history by becoming only the fourth athlete ever to win the Two Oceans and the Comrades in the same year, but she says she will not try to repeat this feat as does not want to jeopardize her chance of running a good Comrades.

“When I won the Two Oceans last year I had one of those near perfect race days which any athlete will tell you only happens a few times during a racing career.

“Personally I think I have peaked a little bit too early last year. That enabled me to have a good run at the Two Oceans but by the time I ran the Comrades I was dead tired. I still had an amazing run. However, Lindsey Parry (Tuks/HPC coach) believes that if I had started training for the Comrades just a bit later I could have run an even better race. 

That is why he decided to get me off to a slower start as far as my training is concerned. This time last year I had already done a lot of hill work and was starting to get race sharp by doing speed work, but now I have not even started to do strength and hill training."

“Two Oceans is going to be long training run I have not tapered at all for it and I do not plan to take a recovery day afterwards. The plan is to run the first 45 kilometres at an easy pace and then up my race tempo over the last few kilometres so that I can get used to finishing fast on tired legs. Hopefully I will still be able to sneak into the top ten but I don’t think I will get a top finish.”

In November last year Wöstmann competed in the New York Marathon, hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio. Unfortunately an injury prevented her from racing at her best. Parry afterwards hinted that she might try to qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, but Wöstmann is not very keen on the idea at the moment.

“The Russian doping scandal and other recent doping scandals made me think about what is currently happening. I have been an avid fan of the Olympic Games in the past. When I watched the athletes performing amazing feats I thought by myself ‘look at these running machines’.  

Now it seems as if up to four athletes may have been doped in some of those races. It is disgusting. I don’t want to be part of it. As things stand at the moment many people may be suspicious about athletes who do well in Rio and not even applaud their performances. 

“It may sound over cynical but I don’t even want my kids to watch the Olympic Games on television. They may see somebody win and think it is awesome only to hear afterwards that the athlete cheated.”

In spite of her strong feelings towards doping in sport, Wöstmann made it clear that not every athlete who competes at the Olympic Games should be considered a cheat.

“What is sad to me is that those who dope belittle the performances of honest athletes.”