Nopesport

Cerys Manning of South Wales was the star of the opening weekend of FCC racing, with two class wins, and the overall win on Saturday. We caught up with her to find out how she feels about the season ahead.

Nopesport: Two good races at the weekend, and two first places: were you surprised with your results?
Cerys Manning: Well yeah, as it was the first two races of the season I didn't know how fit everyone was going to be but I also surprised myself I didn't realise I could do under 6 min/km but it was a quick area.

NS: How has your winter training gone?
CM: Since Christmas it has been going really well, before I was getting stuck in school work but the break has been really good and now I've started a new year with a new training plan and so hopefully its going to be a good one.

NS: How do you feel about the rest of the season? Who will your main rivals be and what are your aims?
CM: I'm looking forward to the JK in the Lakes, hopefully nice and technical and the FCC finals close to home should be good. My aims are for top 3 in British and JK and a good finish in the FCC finals to get into the JWOC team. I don't know if you've heard of the famous quote by a Norwegian commentator talking about a football match in 1981 in which Norway beat England.”Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Atlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana!!! [At this point the commentator rambles on in Norwegian for a couple of seconds] Maggie Thatcher. Can you hear me Maggie Thatcher? Your boys took one hell of a beating. Your boys took one hell of a beating.” It is the funniest bit of commentating ever and is in a weird way a motivation for me.

NS: With a start to the season like that, JWOC must surely be a possibility. How do you feel about that?
CM: I'd love to go to JWOC and its my aim this year but we'll have to see how the rest of the year goes before that.

Well, good luck with the rest of the season, [nope] hope to see you on many more podiums in the coming months.