Proving herself to be a serious contender for the 2012 London Olympics, Aileen Morrison produced a strong run performance and surprised many more experienced athletes who finished behind the Derry girl. During her post race interview, she broke into tears, thanking the Irish crowd for their support.
Aileen had this to say of the race,
“I am really pleased with my result at European championships which were held here in Ireland for the first time over the weekend, I was really hoping for a top 10, (13th in last year’s European champs held in Holten) so I was delighted with a 5th place.
This weekend’s result has given me a lot of confidence in what I can achieve. I had had a bad swim in one of my previous races and suffered a crash in another, so until this race I don’t think I had really reached my full potential.”
Aileen spends around 30 hours a week training and works closely with the physiology and Strength and Conditioning team at SINI as well as Irish Performance Director Chris Jones,
“The SINI guys have been my staple over the winter as I am developing my cycling power and endurance, as well as overall strength. I am aware that these areas were my weaknesses and so I’m lucky to have such highly skilled professionals available to me.”
Aileen has a busy summer ahead with London 2012 always in her mind,
“I will be racing two more World Cup Series races (Hamburg, and Kitzhbhuel) and the Grand final in Budapest in September. A few World Cups (Tizjavours, Hautalco, Tongeyoung) will also boost my overall World ranking and hopefully that will leave me in a good position going into 2011 with regards to ranking points for London 2012.
I am very thankful to the support I receive from my coach Chris Jones, as well as my sponsors Bike It, without whom I would not have been able to race after my crash (in Madrid WCS) as they fixed my bike in a day- I had 2 days at home before I went to des Moines WC race in USA.”
