Jodie's move wins backing (From Brentwood Weekly News)

Jodie's move wins backing

12:14pm Thursday 9th September 2010 in Local Sport

ITU Triathlon World Champion Alistair Brownlee believes Jodie Swallow’s decision to relocate to Switzerland could be the making of her promising, but frustrating career.

Swallow, from Brentwood, travelled to her first Olympics in Athens as one of Britain’s hottest medal prospects – including two European titles and a world athlete of the year award.

But an Achilles injury meant she hobbled to the start line and crawled tearfully across the finish.

More injury woes followed as she was dropped from lottery funding and started to question whether she would continue in the sport.

But she won last year’s ITU Long Distance triathlon world title in Perth and showed her 2010 form with a second place in a recent World Cup race in Hungary.

“Jodie has recently relocated to Switzerland and I think that is a great move because she can now really ramp up her training as she looks to head to London 2012 in the best possible form,” said Brownlee, speaking ahead of next week’s Eurostar Tri-City-Athlon.

“She is a really talented athlete, but for whatever reason she hasn’t quite been able to put it all together just yet. Hopefully this change can change all that.

“As an athlete it can be tough to be bold and change something.

“She has shown great determination and deserves success for it.”

British triathletes successes has seen the sport’s profile soar in recent months.

Now Brownlee is determined to get more people involved in the build-up to London 2012 and is backing a unique three-city triathlon.

The Tri-City-Athlon will see competitors swim in Paris, cycle in Brussels and run in London.