A FORMER Ashton Sixth Form College student won silver for Great Britain at the Olympics in the early hours of Tuesday.
Georgia Taylor-Brown overcame a leg injury 12 weeks ago, as well as a flat tyre and a tropical storm on the day, to come second in the triathlon in Tokyo.
Taylor-Brown went into the race as the reigning world champion and one of the favourites, but she had to play catch-up on the 10km run after getting a puncture on the last lap of the cycling.
She gave a delighted shrug as she stepped on to the podium, having been on crutches 12 weeks ago and having to prove she was fit enough to compete only a week before flying out to Japan.
She said: "I proved that I was fit, I was ready to go, I did more than they asked me to do.
"It’s strange to come into an Olympics not having raced since last September. I got a stress response in my femur 12 weeks ago. So that was a bit of a shock.
"My training had gone so well before then, though, so I knew I had all that in the bag. I wanted to keep it private. You don’t want to show your competitors your weaknesses, and so I did just say I was ill, but I’ve had six weeks of building my running back again.
"It’s not perfect, it’s not what I wanted. It’s not what anyone would want, but I think I got myself into a good position and I was as fit as I could have been on that start line today with the circumstances that I faced."
Ashton Sixth Form College expressed pride in its former student in a post on social media.
The post said: "Congratulations to former student Georgia Taylor-Brown on winning silver at the Olympics in Tokyo! What a race and what an achievement."
Ashton MP Angela Rayner also congratulated Taylor-Brown on an 'incredible performance'.
She said: "Huge congrats to former Ashton Sixth Form student Georgia Taylor-Brown on her silver medal! She was on crutches 12 weeks ago and got a puncture on the bike but still fought back to take the silver. What an incredible performance!"
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