Africa Triathlon

Ahead of the final World Triathlon Series race before the London 2012 Olympic Games, Ireland’s Aileen Morrison and Germany’s Jan Frodeno, Steffen Justus, Maik Petzold and Svenja Bazlen spoke to the press in Hamburg.

Jan Frodeno
On his preparation for Hamburg:
“For me it’s been a rocky journey for me so far. I’ve been going really well since Kitzbuehel, I’ve trained really hard, which also means I’ve trained a lot, so I’m very very tired. So I’m just hoping for the best on the weekend and just hoping to find a bit of freshness.”

On the extra attention at home:
“It’s definitely busier than other times, but one thing this whole time being off from triathlon and being off from running has taught me not to be so tense about these things, but just be grateful for the times I’ve got and I enjoy the whole buzz around it. It’s just different to training and running in the forest like we normally do, so I’m really looking to forward to it.”

Steffen Justus
On racing in Hamburg:
“For me, it’s the best race. I think the crowd will be nearly the same what we have in London and the course is similar, it’s just a sprint, but at this time two and a half weeks before it’s better to do and I’m really looking forward to racing on the weekend and how our training is going and how my fitness is. It’s a little bit of a test, but I want to be as good as possible and I will give everything, we have now, we train really hard for the last few weeks but now we have had two or three days we have been preparing for Hamburg, but our big goal is in London, it’s our last big test.”

Maik Petzold
On racing in Hamburg:
“For sure it’s a little bit of extra pressure, but it’s really nice to perform just a few weeks before the Olympics on home soil so I really enjoy it to have it like that.”

On his goals for London:
“My goal is pretty simple it’s to get a better place than in Athens when I finished 19th, so beside of that it’s to have a good time there. It’s a fantastic feeling, it’s unbelievable, like eight years later you just see it with different eyes, I’m a little bit more experienced, I’m eight years older so I’m not that nervous like I was when I raced in Athens so it’s a great feeling, I know what to do and yeah, I have my plan, they way how I like to perform so I just try to give my best to have a great time there.”

Svenja Bazlen
On her goals for Hamburg:
“I would like a top 10 place and to have a good race, I want to check my form and prove that my training went well of the last few weeks. The sprint distance is perfect for the preparation for London.”

Aileen Morrison
On the weather in Hamburg:
“I think you have to be able to race in whatever the weather, in London also it could be raining, and I’ve trained in the rain, although the past three weeks I’ve been in Spain, some days it was 42 degrees which was very nice but now I’m back to rain, so that’s fine. I think everyone likes some warm weather it’s more pleasant but you have to be able to race in whatever weather.”

On her goals for Hamburg:
“Again, I want to say top five, you look at the start list and think statistically where you should finish and it just depends on what way the swim and bike turn out to be and hopefully I can run the way I know I can. I think Hamburg for me brings happy memories because of 2010 it was my first podium and I really enjoyed it here at the time, and it’s a cool city, great people, and great shops, of course, the shops…so fond memories, last year I came back and it wasn’t such a good race, but I had a good time and it was good to learn some lessons, but it was nice to come back here again.

On the comparison between the Hamburg and London courses:
“So I think they are very comparable, for both races there is the possibility of a wetsuit swim, the swim conditions will be similar, the bike here is mainly flat with some technical corners and turns and for the run again, it’s flat with a few turns and corners, so it’s very comparable and the weather is reasonably comparable so it should be a good way to try out.”