Wellington's Kate McIlroy is set to kick-start the biggest year of her triathlon career after showing moments of brilliance in 2011.
Things seem to be coming together at last for McIlroy, who is now completely injury free, just married and full of excitement going into 2012.
Last season was a critical one for her, battling back following surgery on both Achilles tendons in December 2010.
It was a successful season which saw some great results, including her first ever top 10 finish at an ITU World Championship Series race when she finished sixth in Madrid. She also found the podium at the Yokohama World Cup, finishing third.
But injury struck cruelly at the London World Champs race, where a top 10 finish would have secured her a spot at the Olympics.
Having set herself up well with a great swim and bike, pain stopped McIlroy in her tracks halfway through the run and she was forced to withdraw.
"I picked up a nasty calf strain which forced me out of London. Afterwards that got diagnosed as a soleus tear so it was a massive shame and very disappointing not to qualify,” she said.
"It's the worst situation I could probably throw myself in, being injured for the biggest race of the year.”
McIlroy could have called it quits for the season at that point but decided to battle it out and remain at her European training base to try and finish the season on a high note.
She certainly did that with a sixth place finish at the World Champs Grand Final in Beijing and third at the Yokohama World Cup before heading to the Noosa Triathlon as a warm-up for the Auckland World Cup.
Despite another impressive podium result in Noosa, immediately after the race she realised something had gone wrong.
"I had a bit of an uncoordinated moment on my bike. When I dismounted and ran into transition it got under me and I somehow scraped my toe, I assume on the spokes.
"I still ran the 10k and came third but noticed at the end that it was quite badly cut and had to come home and have it operated on, so it's taken a long time to heal.”
After missing the Auckland World Cup to allow her toe to fully heal, McIlroy is finally back into full training and has one clear goal in mind – qualifying for the Olympics.
That shot will come in April at the Sydney leg of the newly rebranded ITU World Triathlon Series.
"I'm hoping just to have a consistent block of uninterrupted training with no issues. Always the hardest part is staying in one piece and is something I've very rarely been able to do. Hopefully I've put all that behind me.
"I know if I can race this well with what I've done, I always think if I have a flawless build up surely I'll go so much better. It's something I'm striving towards and hopefully after all these years I can sort out all my issues and it'll happen.”
