Nadi Canning wins race against time to take out her Coolangatta Gold section

WHEN Nadi Canning tore her calf muscle 10 weeks ago, she thought her Coolangatta Gold campaign was over.

Coolangatta Gold women’s short-course winner Nadi Canning. Picture: Scott Fletcher

WHEN Nadi Canning tore her calf muscle 10 weeks ago, she thought her Coolangatta Gold campaign was over.

A doctor who juggles work with a massive training load for the endurance event, Canning faced a restricted training regimen as her physio attempted to help nurse her back to full health so she could tackle the elite shortcourse event.

But with an eight-week turnaround the usual requirement, Canning was in a race against time to get to the start line.

She made it but with a question mark over how hard she could push her body in the run, Canning was forced to attack the race from the start, flying solo in a bid to establish a strong lead over Newport’s Phoebe Savage and Sally Watson from Alexandra Headland to ensure she was able to hold on for the run.

“I just wanted to give it a really good crack and see how I went,’’ Canning said.

“I knew I’d be strong on the ski, so I just thought I’d go out as hard as I could and try to hold on.

“Without that gap of running, I knew I just had to get out there and try and get in front and hang on. I knew I could do the distance.’’

Canning has raced the long course before, so knew she had the endurance background to conquer the 32.4km course.

But whether she would make the race at all was touch and go for a while as she “tweaked’’ the muscle a few times during training.

“When I first did it, the physio said, realistically, a calf tear takes about eight weeks (to heal),’’ she said.

“He said we’d just have to see how I went.”

Canning won by a good margin from Savage after building her lead throughout the race, with under-19 winner Grace Kaihau actually beating the second placegetter across the line despite starting a whole wave behind the open competitors.