Charlotte Purdue is worry on the results of a scan after frustrating a troublesome knee injury during a recent training camp in Kenya. Purdue had keyhole surgery on her knee in May to eliminate tissue that had been affecting the joint but she was still able to take second place in the Great Edinburgh Run in October.
And she insists she remains positive about making a quick recovery. “I’m glad it has happened now and hopefully because we have spotted it early it will be okay. I stopped running straight away and I’ve only been swimming and cycling in training since,” she said.
“I know how it happened, in Kenya the terrain is very hilly and I probably just done too much work on the knee. Hopefully I can get back soon and get training again with the Olympics in mind.” Rising star Purdue is not challenging at this weekend’s European Cross Country Championships, where she won junior gold last year, as she focuses her sights on the 31 minute 45 second UK Athletics A standard for the 10,000m at next year’s London 2012 Olympics.
But that will require a big development on her personal best and the 20-year-old has now scrapped plans to go back to Kenya in January, in order to give her knee time to get better, and will instead travel to America in March. The task of switching from junior contest to senior level can be intimidating but Purdue has apparently made the transition with ease, finishing the highest ranked European with her impressive 14th place at the World Cross Country Championship earlier this year.
“Training with the likes of Steph, I was kind of making the move to senior standard without really noticing so that’s helped a lot and so it wasn’t really a step up at all,” she added. “The 10,000m event at the Olympics is my main aim but I’d also like to get the 5,000m time as well. A top eight in the 10,000 would be really good I think.”