This week FTP Frother Adelia Neethling will be competing in the Commonwealth Games riding for South Africa in the Womens Team Pursuit. Adelia has been with FTP Training for the last 2 and half years and is a great example of how FTP has been able to provide Adelia with the right guidance training and support across 3 different coaches.
Born in South Africa and immigrated to Australia just over four years ago. Adelia, now calls Australia (Perth) home. Working full time for a software company, has her constantly on the road travelling. However this hasn’t stopped Adelia from fitting in the training that she needed to chase her dreams. She took up track cycling in 2013 and after becoming instantly a fan she set herself the lofty target of competing for the hour record. She achieved her first world record in March of 2015 setting the new benchmark of 41386m for 34-39 women.
After setting this first record she set her sights on the Derny hour record for 2016. It was at this point Adelia felt she needed a coach who understood the specifics of power based training so that she could extract the maximum out of her training time. Adelia approached Fenz and Senior coach Damo Mason and after a long discussion she was assigned to FTP coach Kate Perry. Kate was able to design a power based training plan and also attend several sessions at the track in Melbourne with Adelia specifically targeting the Derny Hour record. This she achieved in October 2016 setting a new world record of 53406m.
After this success and other multiple state and National titles under her belt Adelia set her sights on the Track World Championships in Los Angeles in 2017. Kate was unable to continue with Adelia at this point so FTP Senior coach Damian Mason took up the reigns at the end of 2016. Adelia had her mind firmly fixed on the Points race and individual pursuit. The effort of the hour had taken its toll on Adelia so Damo inherited a pretty run down and tired athlete. Together with the assistance of another FTP coach Sarah Hunter who handled her strength and conditioning they helped Adelia rebuild her condition and confidence throughout 2017. The points race and pursuit are very different beasts so training for both was difficult. The pursuit was necessary as in addition to everything else she wanted to take on Adelia was bidding for a place in the South African women’s Commonwealth Games Team in the Team Pursuit.
Managing Adelias difficult work Schedule and travel requirements, Damo planned sessions in Brisbane and Melbourne Velodrome’s as the Perth Track was out for maintenance for most of the year. Adelia lugging her track bike for one end of the country to the other. She entered the World Championships in 4 events the Individual Pursuit, Team pursuit, scratch race and points race. After finishing 4th in the first 2 pursuit events and 5th in the scratch race the points race was now all or nothing. This was the event Damo and Adelia had targeted almost 12 months ago and she was determined to succeed. Adelia rode the perfect race winning two of the sprints and finishing 2nd in the final sprint to win by 2 points. Considering were she was in January this was remarkable result but also one that came about by sheer determination, persistence and a little bit of good coaching and team work.
This result put Adelia in the zone for Commonwealth games selection for the Team pursuit. She still had some hurdles to jump over for qualification, she needed to set qualifying times, travel to Malaysia for a team training camp and send them power data and profiling. Due to the difficulty of individual training at the Perth Velodrome it was difficult for Damo to coordinate sessions from the other side of the country. Adelia chose to employed a Perth Based track coach Amanda O’Conner to write her track based sessions in group environments with Damo staying on to provide power based analysis and mental and moral support on a weekly basis. She made the short list and was selected in the final 4 only last week. She races for her country and herself on Thursday afternoon having completed an amazing journey with FTP supporting her all the way we wish her the best of luck.
