World Champion Stanford Sidelined for Commonwealth Games

Defending ITU World Champ Non Stanford is sidelined with injury and will not be competing at  the Commonwealth Games this summer. “I’m pretty devastated,” Stanford, 25, told BBC Sport. “Everything was going really well, getting back into training… about nearly two weeks ago now I started getting a pain in my ankle. I didn’t think too much of it, but because I’m still recovering from injury, I went into panic mode a bit….I got the doctor to scan it and have an MRI, and unfortunately it showed up a stress reaction in my navicular, which is one of the bones in your ankle. So I’m back in a boot and back on crutches. Injuries happen to everyone and the timing has not been ideal for me this year.”

Stanford was part of a Welsh triathlon team that elected not to take Leanda Cave, but includes two-time ITU world champion Helen Jenkins, Holly Lawrence, Liam Lloyd, Alex Matchett and Morgan Davies. In Standford’s place will be 29-year-old Carol Bridge.

Today Stanford posted the following on her blog:

“When life gives you lemons…Well I’ve pretty much got a swimming pool of lemonade out back right now. And last week I got my second truckload of freshly delivered lemons.”

She then explained her added frustration because she had been running so minimally following a tear in her plantar fascia. Continuing with her metaphor, Stanford said she hopes to make it the Grand Final in Edmonton at the end of the summer.

“I’m hoping my lemonade will be ready for a Canadian summer. But these things can’t be rushed. It’ll have to be a work in progress, only to be drunk when it’s sweet enough. I guess that’s in the hands of the lemonade gods. And I suppose, after all this, it’s a good job I quite like lemonade! “